Knight Life II: Out of the Past
by CassieKnight
Summary: Kitt returns in his second adventure as a human to discover that there are complications that take on several different forms. A strange girl claims to know him, but she's in more trouble than he and Michael thought. Sequel to Knight Life. R
1. Part I

**Author's Note:** The sequel to _Knight Life,_ which I had actually written a while ago. So, as a general statement to give you a heads up, you should read the original story first so you have a better idea at my plot. I've had the idea of a few things that could/do happen to Kitt since I finished the original story and had a review from a few people that suggested that Kitt should be experiencing more hardships as he adjusts to the human body. So thank you to those that said that, because this was the result. Please note, that during this fic you'll see spots that are italicized. This represents the flashbacks I'm putting in. Also, please note that I am not a doctor, nor do I have a clue what I'm doing ;) You'll see what I mean later…but let's just pretend, okay? hehe

As usual, none of the characters, with the exception of Rachael, Nadine and perhaps a few others, do not belong to me…I wouldn't be writing little fanfics if they did—I'd be in Hawaii right now lying in the sun enjoying a nice long vacation.

Now, I enjoy decent criticisms, but I will not accept any reviews telling me that this story is crap, that it would never happen, and so-forth. If that's your opinion, kindly keep it to yourself—this is, remember, a "fanfic" which allows me to do what I want. Also, I'm sure there are errors, but the reason famous authors have editors is because not even they could catch every little thing they missed while rereading their work. Enough said. ;) Enjoy.

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**Knight Life II:**

_Out of the Past_

**_Part I_**

Dancing wasn't what he considered a wonderful Friday night out—at least not now. Years ago when he had no concept of how to dance, seeing that he owned four wheels instead of two feet, dancing seemed to be the romantic way of a date and a elegant way to have a good time. How wrong he could have been.

"Kitt, I had a great time," she told him.

Kitt nodded, his gaze still focused on the road ahead of the car as he drove. The rain was coming down so hard now that he could barely see the yellow line down the center of the road. He wished that the car he drove could drive itself, but alas it couldn't. Not that is car, that is. A simple SUV made by GMC. Not having a particular Trans Am was bad enough, but driving a house on wheels made Kitt Knight anxious to get home.

"My God, they never said that it'd be this heavy of a storm," Rachael Bloomdom replied as she looked out the passenger window.

"Pilot Drive," Kitt said out loud as he read the street sign. Around the corner and two houses down, they were finally back to Rachael's house. Kitt put the vehicle in park and turned his head to look at his girlfriend. "Well, you're home," he said with a smile.

"Come inside," she said as she unbuckled the seatbelt. "Take a break before going back home."

Kitt nodded and turned the car off, unbuckled, and followed her to the front door where she quickly opened it and they hurried inside. He took his shoes off so he wouldn't get the carpet wet and neatly lay his jacket on the doorknob of the closet.

"Want anything?" Rachael asked as she put her purse and keys on the side table next to the door, then making her way into the kitchen.

"Double whatever you're having," Kitt said as he moved in casually with his hands in his pockets. He watched her pull out two mugs from the cabinet above the counter and put the kettle on the stove to heat water.

"What?" She asked as she noticed him staring.

"Oh, nothing," he said with a smirk as he went back towards the living room and sat himself down on the couch. He rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, suddenly feeling like it was summer and not late November.

A few minutes later he was joined by Rachael as she carried in two steaming cups of tea. "Alright, half a teaspoon of sugar," she said as she put his mug down on the coaster in front of him on the coffee table. "And light and sweet for me. Do you want silence or a movie?"

Kitt looked out of the window to the side of the room and saw that it was still pouring out and by the looks of the dogwood tree in the front yard it was starting to get very windy. The feeling of his best friend's SUV swaying in the wind wasn't exactly a thrill ride for him. "A movie sounds good."

Rachael nodded as she sorted through the stack of DVD's in the rack next to the television set. "What are you in the mood for?"

"What?" Kitt asked when she asked him.

"Action? Adventure? Romance?" She smirked.

Kitt laughed lightly to himself. "Whatever you want; I chose last time."

Rachael nodded in agreement and put the disk into the player. Before she joined him on the couch she turned off the lights and glanced at the clock. "You're not in a hurry to go home, are you? It's already ten thirty."

"Doesn't matter to me," he replied as he put his arm around her shoulders when she plopped down on the couch next to him. Immediately she cuddled up with her head on his shoulder and her arm around him. Many a night they spent like this, happily seated on the couch watching a movie or just sitting and talking to each other. Kitt didn't mind either way.

In fact, he was happy to have Rachael to do this with. A little over a year ago Kitt had heard the news that his work partner and best friend, Michael Knight, was leaving the Foundation for Law and Government, the very operation that brought Kitt himself to life. Without Michael and without the work they did, Kitt would've been useless.

The movie that played before them was one of Rachael's favorites—_Gone with the Wind_. Kitt had seen it at least twice before; it was usually the backup movie if they couldn't decide what else to put on. Before the opening credits finished rolling, Kitt found his mind wondering.

He idly wondered what his life would be if he had never been taken out of the Knight Industries Two Thousand. The first ten years of his life, the only years he had known, had been spent under the dashboard of the most expensive and unbelievable car in the world. The Knight Two Thousand had been more than a flashy Pontiac Trans Am—it had been who Kitt was, back when his name was just an abbreviation for the car's name. He was the computer of the car, the voice, the mind and the controller if his driver was not present.

Michael Knight had been the only man who had been Kitt's driver. Together they fought against criminals who operated above the law. Until, that is, Michael had been injured and finally decided that he needed to retire from the job of crime fighting. Kitt had been devastated with this news. Michael had taught him everything he knew about life, beyond his programming, of course. Bonnie Barstow, KITT's original programmer, had said once that Michael had given KITT his humanity.

So with Michael Knight gone from F.L.A.G. KITT had nothing left to do. The foundation's cases lessoned and the most he could have done was be a chauffer for the top executives.

Then the miracle of modern medicine and science had been able to join forces to give KITT a body of his own; that is a body that he could reside in and live the life of the being he had always protected. After finding a donor, a man of near thirty who had been in a coma for a few years after an automobile accident, the transfer had been made and Kitt Knight had been born.

Meeting Rachael so soon after his surgical recovery was surprising, but not unwelcome. Kitt loved her more than he even knew how to express. Slowly he learned things, but the more he learned about human life, the more he understood that Michael was right when he once said that Kitt had it made when he was a car.

Sometimes he could close his eyes and imagine himself as the car he had been born into. For him, driving 250mphs down the road had been nothing, jumping over cars and fences was a thrill, and plowing through walls two feet thick was barely living life on the edge. In a way he missed the days he and Michael spent driving across the country, playing word games or discussing random subjects, yet he wouldn't trade this life in for anything. There had been a few obstacles since he had become human, resulting in him being kidnapped and shot, but it was over now and he was content holding someone he cared deeply for.

_The road was dry now. There were three other people in the car with him—he was driving. Everyone was talking and having a good time; only one of his passengers was drunk. He wasn't speeding, but taking his time as everyone talked about their night out. _

_He could see headlights coming towards him. He didn't think anything of it. He was on his side of the road—there was nothing to worry about. _

_The other car was coming up fast. It wasn't a car; it was a big pickup truck. His friend was in the passenger seat—he saw this too. He could see something was coming towards them at a high speed. _

_His friend told him to pull over; but he didn't have a chance. He told his friends that the other car wasn't slowing down. He pressed down his car's horn on the steering wheel—BAM!_

Kitt jumped awake and looked around. Rachael's head popped up and she stared at him with concern. "Kitt? What's wrong?"

Kitt realized that he was still in her living room. The movie was still playing, and the rain was still coming down outside. His face was covered in sweat and he felt like he had just finished running ten miles.

"Kitt?"

Kitt took a deep breath and stood up shaking his head slowly. "I'm okay."

There were a few moments of silence and suddenly Kitt felt a hand wrap around his forearm. "It was more than a nightmare, wasn't it?"

Kitt's blue eyes shifted to meet her green ones. "What makes you think that?"

"This is the second time I've heard you yell out the same words in your sleep."

Kitt was surprised to hear this. "What did I say?"

"Something about he's not slowing down and then holy shit."

Holy shit were two words Kitt would never use, and he could see it in her eyes that she knew that as well. He let out a sigh and turned his head slightly away from her, hoping she'd drop the subject.

"Something's bothering you, isn't it?" She pressed. "Kitt, you can tell me. You know you can."

Kitt nodded. "I'm not sure exactly what it is," he started, "but the only thing I can think of is…flashbacks of some sort.

"Flashbacks? Of what? Something that happened to you and Michael?"

"No," he responded. "What happened to Scott Bordeaux."

"You mean the guy whose body you took over?" Kitt nodded. Rachael's mouth couldn't seem to close. She pulled away from him and sat on the couch, looking at the floor in disbelief. "Kitt this can be serious. They said—"

"They never said that I might not see his memories; not completely, that is."

Rachael looked up at him with the most concerned eyes that he's ever seen on any human before in his life. "Kitt, promise me you'll find out what's wrong. I don't like this one bit. I mean, something might happen to the part that's truly you in there."

Kitt looked at her, astounded that she'd put her words to him like that. He could feel his heart pound at how she made it sound like he was something trapped inside another object.

But Rachael getting up and putting her arms around him made him temporarily forget that. "Kitt, I just want to make sure you're okay. Okay?"

"Of course," Kitt replied.

Rachael turned off the television, and picked up the mugs of tea that neither of them had touched. "It's not letting up is it?" She asked when she saw him going over to the window.

"Not at all," Kitt said with a mild sigh. "I didn't think it could rain this hard for so long."

"You should just stay the night instead of going back now," she said. "I don't mind."

Kitt thought about it for a while, but finally decided that he'd be more comfortable staying rather than gripping the steering wheel and having that chance of crashing Michael's car. He knew Michael and he were like brothers, but even brothers would have a hard time forgiving when there was a car involved.

"You're probably right," he said as he went over to a rocking chair that sported an afghan.

Rachael had already gone into the kitchen to put the mugs into the sink and then headed down the hall to her bedroom before taking a notice that Kitt was already making himself at home on her couch for the night. Just as he was about to settle down and toss the afghan over his legs, she returned wearing a rather short nightgown. "Don't tell me you'd rather spend the night with the couch instead of me."

"I'm not sure I understand," Kitt replied, having a hard time keeping his focus on her face.

Rachael laughed. "I do have a double bed, Mr. Knight, if you're uncomfortable." And with that, she retreated down the hall without another word.

Kitt looked around the living room, and then down the hall to where there was still a light on in Rachael's room. He had never spent the night in the same room with someone. When he was the car he'd spend his nights by himself outside whether it'd be in a garage or a parking lot. Michael never seemed to have a problem sharing a room with a young lady, so perhaps it shouldn't bother him either.

Finally Kitt made his way down the hall to find Rachael curled up on one side of the bed, leaving him enough space; the light was still on, as if she expected him to come down. Turning it off, he pulled off his shirt, leaving him in his t-shirt and pants, and crawled up next to her. She immediately turned over and put her arm around him, a small smile on her face.

óóó

Kitt had woken up after dreaming of a mass of young people wearing caps and gowns with a very large building sporting a clock tower behind them. The only other thing he remembered after opening his eyes was a small stage where there were several people seated and one by one came up to a podium to speak.

Rachael was still sleeping when he sat up at the edge of the bed to think about what he had 'dreamed' of. He knew it was yet another memory of Scott's. It was much too clear to not have been.

Kitt ran his hands through his dark brown hair as he stood up. He hadn't noticed that Rachael too had awakened and was sitting up in bed, watching him move about the room while he thought to himself.

"You had another vision," she said softly.

Kitt turned around quickly to see the same concerned look on her face. "I'd hardly call it a vision, Rachael."

"Well, whatever you want to call it then," she responded. "I hope you're planning on calling someone about it today."

Kitt was a little annoyed with the tone of her voice. She almost sounded the way Bonnie spoke to Michael if they returned from a mission with something on KITT out of place or in need of maintenance. "I hadn't planned on it, no."

"Kitt!" Rachael said sharply as she stood up, now looking angry. "Obviously there's something wrong!"

"If there was something wrong I'd know about it," he said. "It's most likely not unnatural—my memory chips are implanted into the part of the brain that stores memory."

"But look at how you've been reacting to it whenever it triggers," Rachael argued.

"It doesn't always happen like that," he said. "Last night was just a rarity."

"You mean this isn't a recent development?"

Kitt pulled the shirt over his head. "Well, no, of course not. I've had them since the beginning of being like this."

"Kitt, either you call someone or I will."

"I don't need for you to hover over me. I can take care of myself," he told her calmly.

"No, Kitt, I think you forget that you're _not_ a car anymore and you _need_ to take care of yourself now," Rachael lectured. "You might be intelligent, you might have been through a lot, but you still need to grow up."

"I don't think we need to be having this conversation, Rachael," Kitt told her, now more annoyed than he could ever remember being.

"No Kitt, we do. With your computer mind you keep thinking you know all and that life is just something that will fix itself. But now you're a computer in a human body; when will this sink into your little microchips?"

Kitt stared at her, his stomach caught in his throat. "My computer mind…and little microchips?"

"Yes Kitt, you're computer mind," Rachael repeated. "Whether you want to believe it or not, _you're_ still a computer. And _you _always will be."

Kitt could feel his hand tremble at his side. No one had ever spoken to him like that. Michael had lectured him a few times in the past, but this was the first time someone made him feel like he was the size of grain of salt. The only thing he could think of doing was leaving her room and going down the hall for his coat and shoes. It wasn't that he didn't want to face her, but for the first time in his life he didn't know what to say or how to even say it.

"Are you just gonna walk out and ignore me?" Rachael said, following him to the living room.

"Does it even matter? I'm a computer with little microchips."

"Kitt, nothing penetrates, does it!"

"I don't need to hear this from you. If you don't have enough respect for me to let me be, then maybe we just don't belong together!"

Rachael's serious expression turned to one of hurt and betrayal. Even Kitt was surprised that he had raised his voice to her. He could tell that he had deeply hurt her. Tears started to flood her eyes.

"Rachael, I—"

"Please leave, Kitt," Rachael said cutting him off cold as she turned her back to him.

"Rachael—"

"I asked you to leave."

Kitt didn't say another word as he stuffed his feet into his shoes, grabbed his jacket and was out the door before he could give himself a chance to look back. He didn't pause until he was in the driver's seat of Michael's car and found that his hand was having a hard time finding the ignition.

He hoped that when he looked up to the window of the house he'd see her staring out looking at him, hoping that he'd run back to her. But the curtains hung untouched. The door was still closed, and the porch was empty.

Kitt turned the V8 engine on, slowly backed the vehicle out of the driveway and headed back to the Knight Mansion where he knew he'd call her and try to apologize for his actions. He knew he had been very harsh and had no right to tell her that they didn't belong together. He, of all people, thought they did. She had been there with him through the entire ordeal with Andy Jacobs plot to have him destroy his files from F.L.A.G.'s systems. She had stayed by his side when he was recovering from his gunshot wound; they had been together for the past four months since then, not one argument touching any conversation they engaged in.

And just like that, it seemed to be over.


	2. Part II

**AN:** Now that I've finished the semester I expect to have the rest of this posted by early next week, if not even by the end of this weekend, depending on how often I go through it. I've tried to grab all the errors I've found, but if you find one again, please excuse it. After all, I wrote this several years ago and it's hard to catch everything while refreshing your memory of the story.

Reviews are very welcome—they make my day. Thanks everyone for your time!

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**Part II**

Kitt was barely into the driveway of the Knight Mansion when he realized that he'd have more than his conscience to face once he got inside. Michael was just one of the people that'd start poking him to find out why he hadn't returned last night; there was also Devon and Bonnie, the other two people in Kitt's life that he respected and adored.

After turning the engine of the SUV off, Kitt remained silent in the driver's seat, staring at the round steering wheel. He tried to clear his thoughts before he went inside. It was only seven in the morning, so there was a chance that everyone was either still sleeping or busy starting their day and wouldn't notice him sneak into the entrance.

But finally he gave up, got out of the car and went inside. He opened one of the two front doors slowly and peered inside to see who was there to greet him. Cathy, the front desk receptionist of the foundation looked as if she had just gotten to work and was sorting through yesterday's papers. Other than her, the foyer was empty.

"Good morning, Kitt," Cathy said with a simple smile. "Did you enjoy your evening?"

Kitt gave a half, but unconvincing smile. "Evening for the most part, morning no." He didn't give Cathy a chance to ask anything further as he quickly made his way to the stairs. Luck was with him and he was able to make it down the hall and into his room without being stopped.

Kitt tossed his jacket on a nearby chair, and then pulled fresh clothes out of the bureau to change into after he took a shower. As he reached up to yank his present shirt over his head a dull pain gripped his shoulder. His face curled into a small expression of mild pain, but he ignored it as he pulled the shirt off and tossed it into the hamper. Looking at himself in the mirror, he saw the scar left by the bullet that was shot into him four months back. Once and a while it still hurt, but he was told it was to be expected.

Showers usually felt good, but for some reason this one was just a nuisance. The thought of what happened between him and Rachael was still present in his mind, as if he was standing there and watching it take place again. Kitt had always thought that as long as he was good to her she'd have nothing to say to him. He did realize that she wanted nothing but his own well being, but it was her tone that upset him and her choice of descriptive words. He didn't like to be lectured; or yelled at. Perhaps it was because he didn't do much of it himself, but he felt that there was no need to raise the voice.

He wished he could spend the rest of the day sulking in his room, but he knew that it would solve nothing. Going downstairs wasn't as feared as it had been when he first returned that morning, but he knew he still didn't want to answer—

"Morning, pal!"

Kitt forced a smile and continued on walking towards the kitchen. "Hello, Michael."

Michael Knight's sparkling blue eyes dimmed when he heard the dull greeting from his usually perky friend. "You all right?"

"What makes you think I'm not?" Kitt countered quickly.

"Well, for one, you answered me fast enough," Michael said as he too walked to the kitchen. "And two, that was a low greeting for you first thing in the morning."

Kitt shrugged as the entered the large kitchen and opened cabinets up to see what he could eat. Nothing looked appetizing at this point. "Michael…may I ask you something?"

Michael laughed and pulled down a glass from the shelf, then opened the refrigerator to get the orange juice. "Would I ever say no?"

Kitt ignored his attempt at humor. "Am I just a computer with little microchips?"

Michael had brought the glass up to his mouth to drink its contents, but before the liquid could touch his lips he brought it back down and rested it on the counter. "Where did that come from?"

"Rachael."

It was obvious right away that Michael wiped the humor and attempts to make Kitt laugh out of his mind when he said, "Oh." He waited to see what Kitt would say next, but nothing came. "You guys got into a fight?"

"You didn't answer my question, Michael."

"No, you're not," he replied while Kitt moved across the room with nothing but an energy bar and sat down on one of the counter's barstools. "You want to talk about it?"

"Yes and no," Kitt replied simply. "I want to know why she felt the need to lecture me."

"Well, what did you feed her?"

Kitt raised an eyebrow and stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"Kitt, women always go off on a tangent if you say the slightest thing the wrong way. You had to have said or done something to make her start lecturing."

There was momentary silence as Kitt unfolded the wrapper of his breakfast. He quickly thought over in his head what he should tell Michael, although he knew that eventually, Michael would get it out of him. Kitt could be stubborn if he wanted to, but Michael usually knew which buttons to push to get him to talk.

"Last night we were watching a movie and I fell asleep; but apparently I was talking in my sleep and woke up with start," Kitt explained, his eyes fixed on the bar in front of him. "Rachael wanted to know why she's heard me say the same things in my sleep as once before, I made the mistake of telling her, and she lectured me that I needed to have it checked out."

"That's it?" Michael asked.

"I didn't finish," Kitt said glancing up. He pulled the ripped wrapper back over the energy bar and put it down on the countertop. "I ended up staying over night…" Kitt waited for the reaction to come.

"Really?" Michael said in pleasing and interested tone. He tilted his head a little, a smile on his face, but Kitt shook his head quickly which put an end to that.

"Nothing like that, Michael, so spare me," Kitt told him. "Anyway, this morning she brought up the subject again, and when I said I wasn't planning on doing anything about it, she got mad at me. And…well, it turned into an argument with her telling me that I was just a computer in a human body and I…told her we shouldn't be together if she couldn't leave me be."

"Ouch," Michael said softly. "First off, buddy, don't ever tell a girl what you did. Second, you should let them think you're going to do what they want, and if you can get out of it, do so."

"Michael, she was being impossible. She was practically using words to beat me up. I never felt so belittled."

Michael bit his lip for a moment and drank his orange juice. "Maybe it just wasn't meant to be, ya know? Not many people stay with their first choices. I mean, look at me."

Kitt gave him a small smile. "No one can match up to the number of girlfriends you've had, Michael."

"You're just jealous that I got the girls at the end of our missions," Michael smirked.

"Ah, yes, but I remember many times when I had girls in bikinis lying on my hood," Kitt said with a wink.

Michael's smirk disappeared. "Look, I wouldn't worry about her. If she calls you, then I'd take it from there. If not, just think of it as an experience."

"Michael, for once I think you're right," Kitt said.

óóó

Kitt kept himself busy for the remainder of the weekend. Saturday was spent taking a two mile jog with Michael, and then lounging around watching a basketball game. Sunday Kitt agreed to tag along with Bonnie and go Christmas shopping for Michael and Devon.

This was the first time Kitt had entered a mall beyond the parking lot. He knew all about them, remembered pictures of the most prestigious, but he had never witnessed their glamour. People walked in every direction all around, babies cried, people talked, a few argued.

By the end of three hours, having hit thirteen stores, the food court, and watching some of the kids sit on Santa's lap and get their picture taken, Kitt was ready to head home. The only thing he could think of getting Michael was a gift card to his favorite sports store, and a pair of socks, recommended by Bonnie as a joke. Bonnie, however, finished all of her shopping, which Kitt found surprising and outstanding all at the same time.

Kitt's spirits were much higher than they had been Saturday; until that is Monday morning arrived. Kitt awoke and went downstairs in a rush, thinking he'd see Rachael walking by or standing behind the front desk. He felt a rush of disappointment when neither came as he went to the kitchen to get some breakfast.

As he ate the same breakfast he'd been finding for the past three days, his eyes kept glancing up to the door, hoping Rachael would walk in and apologize for everything and they'd be back to normal.

Kitt became discouraged by the time he left the kitchen and went to Devon's office. He knocked on the door, quickly hearing enter being spoken, and was greeted by Devon Miles's welcoming English accent.

"Devon, I was wondering if you've seen Rachael this morning," Kitt asked shyly.

Devon's gray eyebrows furrowed slightly and he tilted his head. "Kitt, I thought you of all people knew."

Kitt's heart paused for a split second. "Know what?"

Devon stood up and went over to his young friend and put a hand on his shoulder. "Rachael quit."

Kitt's blue eyes widened and his mouth opened a hair. "She quit? As in she'll no longer works here?"

"I'm afraid so. She didn't tell you?"

"No," Kitt said softly.

"Apparently she's going to New York to visit her parents for an unplanned amount of time," he explained.

"Thank-you Devon…" Kitt replied and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him slowly.

For two hours Kitt sat silently in the den, the television on, but not taking any bit of interest in the soap opera. If someone asked what was going on, he couldn't have told them. It wasn't until Michael came in and sat next to him on the sofa that Kitt realized what time it was.

"Devon told me you found out," he said. "I'm sorry, Kitt."

Kitt didn't reply.

Michael saw that he was heartbroken, and even he didn't know what to say, if there even was anything he could say that would make Kitt feel better.

"She claimed she loved me, Michael, yet she leaves the state without telling me," he said. "Is that common?"

"Afraid not," Michael said. "She's just not for you, pal."

Kitt sat forward and folded his hands on his lap. "I guess not." In a way, he looked as if he was going to cry, but tears didn't flood his eyes. Kitt's sympathetic or angry reactions always had been remaining quiet.


	3. Part III

**Part III**

Two weeks passed and Kitt never heard a word from Rachael. He knew it wasn't worth crying over spilt milk, so to speak, but he had no idea what he really did wrong. He asked himself every night what he had said that could have turned her away, but he thought that what she said to him was worse, yet he wasn't going to leave her completely for it.

He knew Michael, Bonnie and Devon meant well by trying to get him to go places with them, watching three movies in a row, or all of them going out to dinner. It had worked, to a certain extent, but seeing happy couples sitting at tables in the corner or walking down the street, arm in arm hit him in ways he had never experienced. Until now he had never felt the pain of loss on the end where the other person is still alive, but no longer willing to respond to you. He knew humans were complicated people, but he was slowing starting to realize that once a mistake was made, there was no going back. He couldn't be programmed to fix the error he had made.

Christmas, however, was only a week away, and Michael had yet to go shopping even once. He pretended to beg Kitt that he needed his help on getting something special for Bonnie, something that would hopefully result in her saying yes to having dinner with him, which he had been asking for since they first met. Wanting Michael to be happy, and get himself out of the house, Kitt agreed and they took off one Saturday afternoon. The malls were packed with last minute shoppers, but Kitt and Michael were having a good time finding something for Devon.

"Michael, please, a Santa jacket?" Kitt asked as he eyed the piece of clothing.

Michael held up the bright red jacket and made a face they usually saw Devon wearing when he knew something they didn't. "Why, young lad, I think it would be rather sporting of him to wear this on Christmas day," he mimicked.

Kitt laughed lightly. "As much as I think its funny, I don't think Devon will on this one."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Michael replied and put it back on the rack. "Any suggestions?"

"You can get him a new cricket club," Kitt suggested. "Paint his name on it, perhaps?"

"Now you're talking," Michael laughed.

They walked out of the store ten minutes later with a sweater they both could picture Devon wearing on the occasions he didn't wear a suit. Kitt wondered if Devon would actually wear it or if it would sit in a drawer for years with the tags still hanging from the collar. Michael, though, was convinced Devon would wear it at least once just to make it look like he appreciated the thought.

After that store they both agreed for a quick lunch before heading across the mall to find that special something for Bonnie. Every line for the small counters of the fast-food stands was long. Michael decided that he'd get both of them a Chinese take out meal and Kitt went off to find an unoccupied table.

Kitt sat at the table he found for what seemed like hours, but he looked at his watch and it had only been a few minutes, yet Michael looked as if he barely moved two feet in the line. He couldn't help but shake his head at the sound of the term "fast food." Kitt saw people of all ages eating around him, including a small child eating an ice cream cone, although it seemed to hit every place on his face with the ice cream except his mouth.

As he smiled to himself and turned back to see if Michael's line had made any progress he noticed a girl walking towards him. At first he thought she was just going to pass him, but he soon discovered he was where she was headed. For a moment he wondered if she was someone from the foundation, but he had never seen her before that he could remember.

"Scott? Scott, is it really you?" She said as she stopped once she reached the table.

"Excuse me?"

She looked excited, both in a good and bad way, as for which one, Kitt was unsure. "Scott, I can't believe you didn't tell me! When did you get here? How long have you been back to normal?"

Kitt stood up out of respect for being a lady's presence. "I'm sorry; I think you've mistaken me for someone else."

"Don't act naïve with me, buster," the girl said a little harshly. "Do you know what I've been through for the past few years?"

"Miss, really, I—" He looked at her light brown eyes and reddish-brown hair. She looked so familiar. Then it dawned on him—she thought he was Scott. Of course; the man he resembled was named Scott Bordeaux—she must have known him.

"Scott? What's wrong? Don't you remember me?"

Kitt saw how desperate she was for him to say her name. He had no idea what relation she was to Scott Bordeaux, but he was beginning to feel uncomfortable, now having several of the people at nearby tables looking at them.

"Miss, I wish I knew who you were, but you've made a mistake. My name is—"

"Hi there," Michael said coming up from behind them. "You know her?" He asked Kitt.

"No," Kitt said, but looked back at the girl quickly when he said that. She looked stunned.

"Who's this? What's going on here?"

"I was just going to ask the same question," Michael said as he set the tray of food down on the table.

"Look, Scott, this isn't cute anymore. I don't need games from you right now," she said sternly.

"Scott?" Michael repeated. "Miss, I think you've taken him for someone else."

"Not you too," she said.

"My name is Kitt Knight, not Scott Bordeaux," Kitt said before he could realize that he made the error of mentioning the last name of his body's previous identity before she could even retaliate.

"If you're not, then how the hell did you know his last name?" She asked harshly. "C'mon Scott, I haven't seen you in years! Why do you have to be like this?"

"Ma'am, I think you've got him confused," Michael said, obviously not making the situation better when he butted in.

"I don't have him confused! I know who he is, and I have no clue who you are!"

"My name is Michael Knight, and this is Kitt," Michael said, trying to keep his voice low to hopefully keep hers from raising another level. "I think I know what's going on here, so if you just sit down and let us both explain."

"Explain what?" She asked harshly. "That you're lying and making up this stupid excuse to pretend you don't know who I am? Damn it, Scott, I'm not in the mood! You don't even know why I'm in California, do you?"

Kitt was becoming more confused by the minute. The girl wasn't making any sense, which in a way was expected, seeing that she was convinced he was Scott. "Please understand that I am not Scott," he tried again.

Somehow Michael finally was able to get her to sit down as he and Kitt did the same. He pushed the tray of food away, Kitt being thankful for that in case she decided toss it at one of them. She looked very upset now and Kitt wondered if she'd ever believe them.

"How do you know Scott?" Michael asked.

"What kind of game are you playing?" She asked once again.

"It's not a game," Michael told her, his voice still calm. "We do have a logical explanation for this, but I just want to know who we're dealing with."

"My name's Nadine Corvonce. I _was_ Scott's girlfriend," she said finally.

Kitt could feel the world spin around several times when she said that. _She said she loved him. They were sitting in a strange room with the television on. His arm was around her shoulders and her head lay against his chest. He pulled her closer._ Kitt blinked his eyes several times and shook his head to the side, waiting for the pulsing nerve near his temple to stop aching.

"Scott was in a coma that doctors said he'd never come out of," Michael said.

"I know that," she said.

"So then all I have to do is explain Kitt to you," Michael said with a serious look, hopefully serious enough that would convince her that he was telling the truth. "Ten years ago an organization known as the Foundation for Law and Government came out with a state-of-the-art car that would be driven by one man who would fight criminals who operated above the law. I was that man and Kitt was that car. Kitt stands for the car's name, the Knight Industries Two Thousand, and who you hear and see now was the voice and personality of the car.

"A little more than six months ago, I had been shot and decided that it was time for me to retire from the foundation. But Kitt here decided it was time for him to move on as well, only instead of spending eternity as a car, he found a way that would bring medicine and science together—his memory was implanted in a human brain—Scott's brain."

Nadine sat in silence with a bewildered look on her face. She stared at Michael as if he was some sort of Martian, and ignored Kitt's presence completely. "You expect me to believe that?" She said finally. "A car that talks….that has a personality? Putting a computer into my old boyfriend's head? What kind of insane creature are you?"

Michael leaned back in his chair and held his hands out. "It's the truth, whether you want to believe it or not. Scott would never be himself again, even if he did come out of that coma. With Kitt going into him, it was relieving Scott of his life as a vegetable."

Nadine stood up, tears streaking her cheeks. "You're horrible. I can't believe you'd put all that effort into making up such a lame story. I don't need this right now. I was wrong when I thought I loved you." And with that she was gone.

Kitt watched her hurry off into the crowed of people and disappear. He turned to Michael with a worried face. "That didn't go well."

Michael took in a deep breath and let it back out slowly. "If she doesn't want to believe it, then that's her problem."

"I never expected that; especially because he was from Kentucky. If she was an old girlfriend, what is she doing out here?"

Michael shrugged and moved the tray of Chinese food to the center of the table again. "No idea. She sounded like a desperate girl, if you ask me. If she was his girlfriend at the time of his accident, then obviously she's looking for closure or something."

Kitt didn't add anything more to the conversation. He wasn't sure what to think. It was miraculous that someone would recognize his face as the previous owner when he was on the opposite side of the country Scott Bordeaux had lived.

óóó

"Maybe a necklace," Michael suggested as he whacked the ball when it jumped into his court.

"It'd have to be something very beautiful," Kitt replied as he smacked the ball back to him, "that is, if you want it to help you win a date with her."

"You sound like you're the expert," Michael stated as he ran across the court and came just a hair short from the ball touching his racket. He stood up straight and waited for a moment before going after the yellow tennis ball. "Diamonds?"

"Are expensive," Kitt said. "Do you have that kind of money?"

"Think Christmas, buddy," Michael said as he jogged over and picked up the ball. "There are all kinds of sales going on this time of year."

"A point well taken," Kitt said, bending his knees, ready to receive the serve. After the ordeal at the mall the other day, they had lost interest in pursuing a special gift for Bonnie.

"So we agree on a necklace?" Michael asked after hitting the ball back over the net.

"It's your gift, not mine," he said. "I already found what I'm giving Bonnie."

"But you're my moral support," Michael replied. "I need your input and statistics on how well she'll like it."

"Very funny," Kitt replied.

Although being December, California's weather was still warm enough for a good workout on the tennis court. Kitt enjoyed this sport, his mind keeping busy and focused on where the ball was going, not to mention getting the exercise. Kitt swung his racket, hitting the ball perfectly down the center of the net at his opponent, but Michael had stood up straight again and looked past Kitt.

"Giving up?" He asked with a small smirk, but footsteps from behind caught his attention.

"I never knew Michael Knight as someone who would give up," Bonnie said with a smile and a glimmer in her eye. "Are you boys having fun?"

"If you count losing miserably fun," Kitt replied in a humorous tone.

"Well, I'd let you two continue, but Devon requests both of you in his office," Bonnie informed.

"Now? He knows we came out here," Michael said going over and grabbing two towels, tossing one to Kitt.

"Someone's here and he wants you to talk to her," Bonne explained. "I hear you met her the other day at the mall?"

Kitt looked at Michael, knowing he thought the same thing he did when Bonnie said that. "Is her name Nadine Corvonce by any chance?" Michael asked as they followed her back into the house.

"As a matter of fact," Bonnie replied.

Kitt and Michael followed her down the main hall and into Devon Miles's office where he sat behind his desk and a young girl with reddish-brown hair sat across from him on a chair. She looked sheepishly at both men as they entered and Bonnie moved off to the side.

"Ah, Michael, Kitt," Devon greeted. "I believe you know Miss Corvonce."

"We've met," Michael said with a forced smirk.

Devon stood up and went around to the front of the desk, sitting down again on the very edge of the polished wood. "Miss Corvonce has come to us for help with her ex-boyfriend, and I think you'll find her story rather serious."

For a moment Kitt thought Devon was referring to him and what had taken place the other day. But neither Devon's nor Nadine's attention was on him completely. "What is her story?" He heard Michael say.

Devon looked at Nadine for a moment and then spoke. "I'm afraid Nadine is being stalked by a man named Robert Oliver. He followed her here from Kentucky, and she feels that he's dangerous enough to hurt her or her grandmother."

"Grandmother?" Kitt asked, not expecting to hear of a second person.

"What's he after you for?" Michael asked suspiciously.

"I…I don't know," she said timidly. "I figured money or something."

"I propose we not only see if we can find out what his motive is and put a stop to it, but watch out for Nadine and her grandmother until everything's settled," Devon stated.

Kitt remained silent, and Michael decided not to add anything else. Bonnie looked at the two of them as she sat in a chair off to the side of the room. Devon felt an uncomfortable air come about the room, knowing the story of what happened the other day in the mall. He adjusted his tie and stood up to clap his hands and then one each on the shoulders of Kitt and Michael. "I trust you can take it from here?"

"I'm retired, remember," Michael reminded him.

"Of course you are," Devon said with a smile. "This is hardly any work for you. The foundation will do the rest of the work on this one."

"Glad to hear it," Michael said as he took the towel off from around his neck and headed out of the door with Kitt.

"Michael, Kitt? Would you be so kind as to bring Miss Corvonce to her car?" Devon asked with a twinkle in his eye.

Nadine stood up and followed both men out of the room, at first saying nothing. She seemed to pace herself away from Kitt as the three walked towards the front of the house.

"So tell me, what made you believe in our story, Miss Corvonce?" Michael asked, putting a bit of stress on her name.

Nadine looked up at Michael and looked slightly embarrassed. "I went home and looked up the organization you named—this place. When I found out it was true, I couldn't help but piece everything together. I talked to your secretary for a few minutes and asked how advanced of a technology department you had, and when she said top of the line, I finally realized that maybe you were telling the truth."

"So perhaps now you believe me when I say who I am," Kitt said, thinking he may have stepped a bit out of line again.

Nadine stopped walking, causing both Kitt and Michael to stop and turn to her. "I don't care what you say; you stole my Scott's life." She stared angrily at Kitt, her eyes boring into his and tearing him apart inch by inch.

"Scott didn't have a chance," Michael said now pretty much annoyed with her attitude.

"People have been in comas for years and came out of them acting like they took a ten minute nap. Don't you tell me about chances—he didn't have a chance to wake up. Instead this thing pushed right through his head and acts like he did nothing wrong."

"Now you listen to me—" Michael started, but Kitt held up his hand.

"Forget it, Michael. Good day, Miss Corvonce." Kitt needn't look at Nadine anymore to see that she was staring him down with the uttermost hatred. He retreated to the kitchen while Michael finished walking her to the door, taking out a glass and filling it with Gatorade.

"You didn't need to put up with that," Michael said joining him a few minutes later.

"She's right, Michael. Scott Bordeaux didn't have a chance. I did steal his life. The one crime I commit since being activated was taking over someone's life. I had no right. And I see that I've hurt her more than she can afford." Kitt didn't finish his drink; instead he left it on the counter and started for the doorway.

Michael grabbed his arm. "Don't you go around thinking like that now. I'm glad you made that choice—I'm glad you've had the opportunity to do this. If you let yourself get depressed because of some young girl's anger at her mishaps, then I'll never talk to you again."

Kitt looked at him helplessly, yet a serious glare came from his eyes. "I'd like to wash up, Michael." The hand left his arm and he turned again, but didn't leave. "I thought I should tell you though," he said. "I remember her." After saying that, Kitt walked out of the room and went up the stairs to his room where he could be alone while taking a shower.


	4. Part IV

**Author's Blurb: **I have finished with editing, so the rest of the story will be up. Thanks for the reviews to those who posted them. And for future reference to those who have asked, I'm not much of a 'cross-over' writer. Until we meet again, ciao!

* * *

**_Part IV_**

Michael had to wait until Kitt was ready to come out of his room; he had locked the door to prevent any burst-ins for questions. He knew he left a cliff hanger for his best friend, but at that point that was all he wanted to say. He wanted to think about it a little more to see if he'd see anything else before just blurting out that he thinks he's seen a new memory of Scott Bordeaux's.

Kitt found Michael with Devon and Bonnie setting up a Christmas tree in the parlor, something he had never seen before. "Kitt, come help us with the garland," Bonnie said, standing next to Michael, who had to even stand on a stool to reach the top of the tree with the shimmering silver garland. Kitt picked up the box she was getting it from and untangled what he could, trying to determine if this was the best time to bring up the subject of "his" memories.

Michael stepped off the stool and Bonnie started to move around the tree to put the rest up, while Devon selected ornaments from a box on one of the chairs. "Ah, Kitt I think you should put this one up," he said holding up a small black ornament in the shape of a car, ironically having "KITT" written across the side. "We had this made for you the first year you were around for Christmas, upon Michael's request."

Kitt took the ornament and hung it on a branch by the gold string that emerged from the roof of the tiny black car. He saw that Michael, Devon, and Bonnie had their own ornaments, simple and round, with their names stenciled onto the side.

"I think I owe all of you an apology," Kitt said, knowing that Michael was being good and keeping his mouth shut instead of pestering Kitt with questions about what he meant before.

"For what?" Bonnie asked.

Kitt picked up another ornament from the box and turned it over in his hands. "For the way I've acted in the past few weeks, if not even for the past year. I've been childish and foolhardy."

"Kitt, you've hardly been either," Devon said. "You're learning the ways of human life—the good and the bad parts. We all know that you've been trying to get over the heartbreak of Rachael taking off like she did, and now the disruption of Nadine charging you with cruelty."

"You have nothing to be sorry for," Bonnie said. "Right Michael? Michael?"

"Yes, yes," Michael said, who was presently kneeling on the floor, trying to figure out why half of the lights on the tree went out.

Kitt smirked lightly, but let out a sigh. "I haven't talked about this much, but I feel all of you should know."

All three of his friends stopped and looked at him. Kitt looked for the right words. "Ever since my transformation, so to speak, I've been having dreams I shouldn't be having. I've been seeing things in my mind—events, people, random things."

"What type of things?" Bonnie asked a little surprised at what he was telling them.

"At first it was moments before a car crash. The only thing I could think of was that it was Scott Bordeaux's accident that put him into that coma. Then it turned into a graduation, a birthday party, and now since meeting Nadine…her."

There was a bit of silence while he waited for a reaction from the others. Michael already knew parts of it, having been told of why he and Rachael had a fight. For Devon and Bonnie, however, it was shocking news.

"That isn't right," Bonnie said. "They said that Scott's memory would've been lost completely when your chips were added to the brain. And besides, the damage that he got from that accident would've caused permanent amnesia anyway."

"And this happens every night?" Devon asked.

"Well, at first, but the other day I had a memory flash through my eyes when Nadine first came up to me and called me Scott."

Bonnie looked distressed. "I'll make some calls tomorrow morning, Kitt. You shouldn't have to suffer with something like that."

"What can they do though?" Michael asked. "Take him apart again?"

"I don't know, Michael, but would you want to go through life having memories that don't belong to you?" Bonnie countered.

"I wouldn't exactly put it that way," Michael said quickly for Kitt's benefit. "They're more like shared memories now."

"Yes Martha?" Devon said. Everyone looked at the doorway to see Martha, one of the other secretaries standing in the doorway.

"There's a call for Mr. Knight," she said. "Sorry, for Michael."

When she left, Michael went over to the phone and picked up. "Hello? Nadine?" The others stressed their ears to see if they could hear anything on the other end of the phone. "Sure, we can come down and take a look. Half an hour? All right, see you then."

"Well?" Devon asked.

"That was Nadine. She said her grandmother was outside getting the mail and saw someone slowly drive by the house that looked suspicious. She wants us to go over and take a quick look around."

"Us?" Kitt asked. "Michael, you can't be thinking me too."

"Get your coat, buddy, we're going for a ride," Michael said.

- - -

The drive to Nadine's grandmothers was about half an hour, but they found it without a problem. It was a small, white ranch, a detached one car garage, and a simple picked fence surrounding the small yard.

"Reminds me of my grandmother's place when I was a kid," Michael said, receiving no response from Kitt, who was obviously not too eager to see Nadine again.

Out of precaution, they had taken the Knight Two Thousand, just in case something should come up, although both Michael and Kitt highly doubted someone would be stupid enough to attempt anything when there were witnesses.

Michael took the lead to the front door, and before he could finish ringing the doorbell, the door opened. The woman before them easily fit the phrase "little old lady." She was no taller than five feet, with pure white hair, glasses, and a friendly wrinkled face.

"Hi," Michael greeted with a smile. "We're looking for Nadine—"

"You've found her," Nadine said coming up behind her grandmother. "Come on in."

Kitt found that he put his hands into his jacket pockets out of a nervous habit. He looked around the quaint living room they now stood in.

"This is my grandmother," Nadine introduced.

The little old lady stepped forward and took Michael's hand in both of hers. "Grandma Nelly is just fine," she said sweetly. "You boys make yourselves comfortable and I'll get some tea and cookies."

"Grandma, they're just here to check out the area," Nadine said.

"That's fine," Michael said. "Just tell me what you know about Robert Oliver. How did you meet him, why did you break up, and why you think he was driving around here."

"First of all, it wasn't him my grandmother saw," she said as she sat down. "He's got friends, Michael. For all I know his top gun is living next door. That's why I'm so worried and went to the foundation; I'm almost at the point I'm afraid to go out that door."

She paused a moment, seeming to be gathering her thoughts. "When I lost Scott to that car accident," she gave Kitt a quick, ill look, "my best friend thought that I needed to find someone else to get my mind off it him. So she introduced me to her next door neighbor."

"Robert," Michael concluded.

Nadine nodded. "He seemed so wonderful. He was fun, nice, caring—we were always together. But then he just started getting weird and seemed to be asking me for money a lot. At first I didn't mind loaning it to him, but it started getting out of hand."

"About how much money was he expecting from you?" Kitt asked, but he found that he should've remained quiet.

"That's none of your business," Nadine said.

Michael held out his hand and gave her a cross look. "Look, if you want us to find this guy and help you out, you should tell us everything. Kitt's not an amateur; he knows what he's talking about."

Nadine sighed and bowed her head. "A couple of hundred a month, I think. Something like that; but I got tired of it, so I broke up with him."

"And that's why he's going after you?" Michael said, unsure whether to accept such a simple story.

"How am I supposed to know? We had moved in together into my place, so when I finally broke things off and sold the place, I didn't give him anything I got from it. I didn't feel he deserved it."

"Why'd you move out; why not just tell him to get lost?" Michael asked.

"Same reason I broke up with him: money. I couldn't afford the place, and he wasn't really contributing, except he'd go out and buy groceries. Michael, he was showing up at my apartment, telling me I had no right to leave him….It started to become too much. I thought if I came out here to live with Grandma that he'd stop—but he followed me. And he has all these people following me too."

"Could one of you boys carry this in for me?" Grandma Nelly said from the kitchen.

Kitt jumped up and went to assist her. He smiled pleasantly at her as he picked up the tray. "You're such a nice young man; so nice and handsome. What's your name?" She asked her hand lightly on his arm as he picked up the tray.

"Kitt, ma'am," he replied.

"And so polite," she said happily. She followed Kitt into the living room and pointed to the coffee table, telling him that's where he should rest the tray of tea and cookies. "Nadine, isn't he such a sweet young man? He reminds me of your old fiancé."

Kitt's eyes averted to Nadine almost immediately, and she looked hurt from her grandmother's words. "To a point, Grandma," she said and turned her attention to pouring tea.

The rest of the visit was spent talking to Grandma Nelly about her husband who had served in both world wars, her move to California from Washington, and knitting—she had knitted the afghan Kitt had been leaning against, which him notice and commented on it.

Both Michael and Kitt took it upon themselves to clean up the dishes for Grandma Nelly, both taking a liking to her. Once everything was washed, dried, and put away, they headed back out to the car, Nadine following behind to see them off.

"I wish I had a picture of every creep he hung around with," she said as they opened the car doors.

"This one of Robert is the most important," Michael said, tucking the photo into his inside jacket pocket. "Let us know if you need help. We'll take a quick drive around and take a look to see if there are any characters hanging around for no reason."

"Thank-you, Michael," Nadine said and went back towards the house.

"She doesn't want to seem to acknowledge your existence, partner," Michael said as he backed the car out of the driveway.

"How can you tell?" Kitt said sarcastically.

The neighborhood was quiet and no one seemed to be out of place. The car Grandma Nelly had described wasn't in any of the driveways in the surrounding area, which led Michael to believe that they were keeping their distance when they weren't keeping watch on Nadine.

Kitt and Michael were barely up the front steps and into the door of the house when Bonnie came rushing up to them. "You guys have to go back," she said quickly. "A lady, Grandma Nelly, called up and said that she needed you to go back and get Robert out of the house."

The half-hour drive to Grandma Nelly's house was cut down to ten minutes in the Knight Two Thousand's pursuit mode. The car was barely turned off when Michael and Kitt bounded out of the car and rushed to the front door, bursting in to find Grandma Nelly sitting next to Nadine with her arms around her.

"What happened?" Michael asked a little shocked to see that Robert wasn't there.

Nadine held a tissue to one of her eyes as last minute tears dropped out. She had apparently been crying, and was now trying to calm down. Grandma Nelly sat by her but waved for Michael and Kitt go come in.

"That terrible man showed up. We thought it was you coming back," she said with anger.

Nadine pulled away from her grandmother's hold and tried to keep her eyes dry. "He saw you leaving. He wanted to know who you were and what you were doing here."

"What'd you tell him?" Michael asked.

"That you were friends from college and came over to visit when you heard I came out here."

Kitt looked around and didn't see anything out of place or even messed up in the slightest. He wondered what kind of a visit this so-called mad man could have made. Michael knew what Kitt was thinking, though. "So what happened? Why'd he leave just like that?"

Nadine shrugged. "I think it's because Grandma was in the room too. That and I had told him you went to the store for her and could have come back at any time. He didn't want to answer questions to a stranger, so he left and warned me."

"Warned you?" Kitt said looking up, his hands on his hips while he had been contemplating what had happened.

"Not to talk to you people, of course." Nadine stood up and shook her head, crossing her arms, but keeping one hand upright and on her forehead. "Thanks for coming back."

Michael nodded and stared at her as she tried to hide her upset face. "If you don't feel safe here, you can come back to the foundation. He can't get you there."

"No," she said quickly. "I don't want to be anywhere but here. I'm fine; really I am."

"Alright," Michael agreed finally.

"Is it safe to assume you're okay as well, Grandma Nelly?" Kitt asked kindly.

"Yes, thank-you, dear," she replied.

Michael and Kitt left the house for the second time that day, but neither was happy about leaving Nadine and her grandmother behind. "I think we're on the same wavelengths," Kitt said once they were in the car.

"How's that, Kitt?"

"You don't want to leave them here alone."

Michael frowned and backed up the Trans Am. "That's for sure. I'm worried about Nadine getting hurt, but Grandma Nelly is an eighty-year-old woman, and I'm sure that although she's up and around a lot, I don't think she could sprint."

"Its something that I am now learning to fear," Kitt said.

"What?"

"Getting old."

Instead of attempting to go home again, Michael called up Bonnie and Devon and told them not to wait around for dinner because he and Kitt were going to the mall again. Michael felt that if he didn't get Bonnie's gift soon he'd end up never having the chance before Christmas.

Having scoped out the best jeweler upon their previous visit to the mall, it was straight into the store. Unfortunately, the salesman wasn't very bright about things outside of jewelry. Michael and Kitt had the distinct impression that the man thought they were buying wedding rings of some sort and not for their girls at home. But as soon as Michael explained what he was looking for, the man ignored the option that Michael and Kitt were together, so to speak, and went around pointing out the finest things. However, something had caught Kitt's eye right off the bat.

"Michael, take a look at this one," he said bending over the glass counter and pointing to a diamond engulfed in gold in the shape of a teardrop.

"Wow," Michael said as he looked at it, trying to get a glimpse from all angles. "How much is that one?"

The salesman came over and opened the counter, gently took the necklace on its thin gold chain out, and held it up for them to see. "This one runs normally runs around nine-hundred, but its on say for two-ninety-nine. For a quarter of a karat, that is."

Michael thought about it for a moment, looked to Kitt who said it was up to him, and finally gave in. As he waited for the necklace to be boxed and wrapped, he leaned on the counter and looked at the credit card in his hand. "Not cheap and not much," he said. "She better like it and say yes to dinner."

"Michael, is it really necessary to spend so much money on a necklace and risk the chance of her saying no?" Kitt asked. "I mean, you haven't tried asking her out since you retired, and it would have been awkward to be working with your love interest, especially if things didn't work out."

"You sound as if you have no hope for us," Michael pouted. "Wait…you don't—"

"Michael, don't even consider it," Kitt stopped him before he could insinuate that Kitt liked Bonnie since she had been the one to take care of him for all those years as a car.

Michael laughed and handed the salesman the credit card when he came back around. "Money's like water, pal," he said when the card was given back to him. "It flows through your fingers and drains out in a flash."

"An interesting point," Kitt said. "But leave the analogies to me from now on."


	5. Part V

**_Part V_**

Christmas Day was everything Kitt thought it would be. Being the kid he was Michael went around to everyone's room at six o'clock getting them up. Kitt wasn't bothered by it, but he heard that Devon put up a suitable protest. Bonnie, however, was quite amusing that early in the morning. Kitt had never seen her all decked out in haphazardly pulled back hair, pajamas, a fuzzy-blue bathrobe, and slippers.

"Merry Christmas, pal!" Michael called to Kitt as he made his way down the stairs.

"And the same to you, Michael," Kitt said with a smile. He met them in the parlor where the tree was set up.

Before Michael had the chance to kneel down and distribute the presents from under the tree, everyone was surprised to see Devon walk in, obviously half awake, but found the energy to comb his hair neatly.

"Michael, is six a.m. really necessary?" He asked as he sat down in a Queen Anne styled chair.

"C'mon, Devon, where's your holiday spirit? Christmas is no fun if you don't start it up early in the morning," Michael stated. He picked up the closest box to him and read the tag. "Okay, Bonnie this is yours….Kitt….Devon."

Devon looked at the box and then at Michael, wondering what on Earth could be in such a large and abnormally shaped box. "Michael, this better not be a clown or something that's going to jump out at me."

Michael laughed. "Trust me I learned my lesson that year."

Kitt watched as Bonnie pealed off the paper and opened the shirt box. "Michael, it's beautiful," she said as she picked up the sweater.

"Oh yeah, that's from me and Kitt," he pointed out.

"Thank you, Kitt, I love it," she commented as she looked over the red and white colors.

"You're quite welcome, Bonnie," Kitt said, "but after all you've ever done for me, I couldn't resist this."

Kitt had gone down on the floor next to Michael and picked up a small box and handed it to her. Bonnie looked at him and smirked as she pulled the wrappings off and opened it. "Oh Kitt…These are the ones I pointed out to you in the mall that day."

"The very same," Kitt replied proudly. "I knew you liked them."

"I love them," she told him honestly as she picked up the earrings and put them on. "Thank you."

"Go on, Devon, your turn," Michael said with a smile.

Devon gave Michael and Kitt a suspicious eye as he neatly tore open the wrapping paper and opened the box. His curious frown turned into a relieved smile as he pulled out a tie and a navy-colored sweater. "Not bad, Michael, I am impressed. It was a nice choice."

"Thank-you," Michael said in a familiar "of-course-it-was" tone. "Kitt?"

Kitt nodded and opened his package. He couldn't help but laugh to himself when he pulled out a sweater of his own. "I see that this is the sweater year," Devon said in an amused voice.

"Do you like it?" Michael asked Kitt, although he didn't sound fearful that his friend would be ungrateful for his choice.

"Of course I do, Michael," Kitt smirked. "I'm quite fond of black, you know that."

"Naturally," Bonnie said as she got up and shooed Michael to the sofa. "Now it's my turn."

They finished opening their gifts, each excited and satisfied with the items they received. After they sat around and talked about random things, memories and favorite Christmas stories. During the afternoon, however, Michael had snuck up on Bonnie as she was sampling the fresh Christmas cookies that had been brought out from the kitchen. He pulled out a small box from his pocket and handed it to her. When she heard his question of going to dinner with him, she curiously opened the box. Kitt felt a smile automatically pull at both sides of his mouth when he peeked around the corner to see Bonnie giving Michael a big hug. Michael, in turn after seeing his friend, gave him a thumbs up to signal that Bonnie had indeed said yes.

óóó

The unfortunate detail about Christmas ending, more than the fact that it would be another year before the festive holiday arrived again, was that December 27th marked the appointment Kitt was to see the man who gave him a human life. Kitt was thankful for what Dr. Larson had done for him, but he had hoped he would never see the man again unless it was bumping into him at a grocery store. Bonnie and Michael accompanied Kitt to Dr. Larson's temporary office at Red Wood Memorial Hospital, both going for their own information, but also as support for Kitt.

They each sat in a chair in front of the desk in a very small room, barely big enough to move around in. Soon Dr. Larson came in and greeted each of them with a warm smile and a shake of the hand.

"When I found out that you needed to see me, I instantly became nervous," he said to them as he sat down and opened up Kitt's medical folder on his desk. "But now that I see Kitt looks healthy I can rest easier."

"Maybe not," Bonnie said. "Dr. Larson, Kitt's been having flashes of Scott Bordeaux's memory. You claimed that anything relating to Scott's past would be gone."

Dr. Larson's relaxed face tightened only slightly. "Yes, that's right. He shouldn't be experiencing anything—or if so then only for the first few weeks as the brain dealt with the conversion to a computer memory chip."

"Then unfortunately, Dr. Larson," Kitt spoke up, "something is wrong. In fact, as time rolls further on I've been dreaming of more events that I had never gone to or people that I never met."

"That is a problem," the doctor said softly, bringing his hands up to fold on the desktop.

"The other night Kitt had a flashback that even woke me up—and I'm a sound sleeper," Michael pointed out. "It's more than just dreams of nothingness; it's starting to get to him."

Kitt nodded, and that only made Dr. Larson seem tenser. "I don't understand what could be doing this—especially with a computer like Kitt." Kitt's insides flinched a little at his words. "Kitt's memory system should be more than compatible with the procedure; he's practically human without a body."

"That's why we came to see you," Bonnie said.

"Is your own personal memory having problems?"

"No," Kitt answered trying to recall if there was a time where he couldn't remember anything that he should have. "It's almost as if something inside my head is fighting with my microchips, trying to defend it against me."

"That's exactly what it sounds like, but it still shouldn't be happening. All of our test cases were fine. There's no reason why you, of all computers, should be having problems."

"So what can you do?" Kitt asked, fearful of his answer.

Dr. Larson seemed to be reading over a few of the papers in the medical folder while the three people in front of him waited for his answer. "There's only one thing that I can do. I'd have to go back in there and find out what's wrong. It could be that the chip moved at the last minute and we didn't catch it, or maybe there's a slight flaw on the board that could be easily fixed."

"Surgery," Kitt said under his breath. "There's no other way, is there?"  
"I'm sorry to say there's not. Without going in I can't tell what's happening."

Michael clenched his teeth and looked away, obviously aggravated. Bonnie tried to optimistic.

Dr. Larson took a pen from a nearby mug and started to write down something on the top form. "We can schedule a time next week, if you'd like. I'm here until the end of next month, and I think we can have the problem solved by then."

"By then? How is this going to work?" Kitt asked now a little troubled.

Dr. Larson finished writing and looked at Kitt directly in the eyes. "We'll go in and see what's wrong, have the problem fixed, go back in, and hopefully the problem will be solved."

"This is going to take more than one shot?" Michael said, his head turning sharply.

"I'm afraid so," Dr. Larson replied. "If there is a problem with the chip, we can't have it fixed right away. Kitt no longer has a back-up memory chip, so putting a new one in will erase all recent happenings and what-not since this started."

"You can't keep opening his head up like a bottle of Coke," Michael said a little harsher than he had intended. "He's already been to this place twice—the second time for a bullet wound. Now you're going to play around like he's some experiment?"

"Mr. Knight, this is technical work," Dr. Larson said now sitting up very straight. "Like all science, it can take a while to perfect."

"And what happens to this body in the mean time? All current functions and the sort?" Kitt asked, now more than concerned. "I don't want to risk anything where I won't exist in the end."

"The body should be fine," Larson started, "regular people have gone under multiple surgeries for tumors, or shattered bones or whatever the case may be. And I'm sure our scientists can provide you with a temporary home if it comes down to the fact that we'll have to spend some time working on your chip."

Kitt nodded. Dr Larson waited for any more questions to come his way, but none came. "Alright then; I'll let you talk to the receptionist to make a time that's good for you. I'll see you then."

Shaking of hands was forgotten as he left the room, leaving Bonnie, Kitt, and Michael sitting without a movement to any of their muscles for a short time. Michael finally got up and started out, obviously ticked off with what the good doctor had to say.

The ride home was full of silence. Kitt had no care as to what Michael and Bonnie were thinking at that point. He had no desire to go back into surgery for not just once, but possibly two times. All he had ever wanted was a normal life as a human, like his friends had. His greatest fear though, was that he would never see the one year mark of his human experience. He wondered if he should start talking to Bonnie and the foundation's crew about changing the Trans Am's voice panel to a different color for a change.


	6. Part VI

**_Part VI_**

Devon never expected such news, although he later admitted that he should've known that there was really nothing else to correct the problem. Kitt, on the other hand, wished he had never said anything about what had been happening. Bonnie had told him that this was for his own good, to remind him that more problems could happen further down the road, but Kitt was skeptical.

He had been passing by Devon's office after visiting the facilities when he heard Bonnie arguing with Michael. He stopped and listened carefully only to hear that he was the basis of the argument.

"Michael, what else is there to do?" Bonnie asked in a raised voice.

"Bonnie, they should've had this right the first time. I don't trust that Larson. I'm wondering if he did this on purpose just to line his own pockets."

"That's not true!"

"How do you know, Bonnie? Doctors have done things for the buck, and they know that most of their patients have no choice but to go along."

"Michael, nothing's going to happen to Kitt. This will be the last time."

"Until a few years from now something else happens—he'll have had more surgeries this year than I've had in the last ten."

"Michael, there's nothing else we can do for him," Bonnie said more softly now.

Kitt was turning away from the door so he could find something to take his mind off what he just heard when Devon came around the corner with a cup of tea. "Ah, Kitt," he said in that friendly tone he had. "Do you want a cup?"

"No, I'm fine, thanks," Kitt replied and started to continue forward again when Cathy came jogging up to them.

"Mr. Miles," she said quickly. "A call just came from Nadine Corvonce; her grandmother's house is on fire."

"It's what?" Devon asked again in utter shock.

Kitt, however, didn't wait for her to repeat herself. He quickly opened the doors of the office and caught Bonnie and Michael off guard. "Michael, we have to go."

They were there in a matter of minutes, but had to park the car at the end of the street, seeing that the fire department had it blocked off for the firemen to work. By the time they reached the house, the flames were out and only black smoke rose from the back of the house.

Kitt pointed to two people standing on in the middle of the road, looking at the house in a ghostly gaze. He and Michael jogged up to them, Michael calling out Nadine's name.

Grandma Nelly turned around, her eyes red from crying and fear, but forced a smile to greet him. "Michael, Kitt—you didn't have to come."

"Yes we did," Michael said putting his hand on her shoulder. "What happened?" He asked Nadine with a serious eye.

"The deck off the kitchen caught fire," she said trying to hold back tears. "I wasn't even home at the time and Grandma was taking a nap in her bedroom. I came home…" She started crying.

Michael pulled her into a hug as she cried into his jacket. "Michael, I was so scared! At first I thought that Grandma was—"

"She's okay," Michael tried to comfort. "You're both okay."

A fireman came up the group and took off his helmet. "Mrs. Appleton, you're house isn't gonna have to come down," he told her bringing a relieved smile to her face. "We were able to keep the fire from spreading; only the deck and kitchen were destroyed, and that can be fixed. A few of your things might be blackened by the smoke, but other than that nothing."

"Oh, thank you young man," Grandma Nelly said softly. "Are we able to get anything from the house?"

"Give us a few minutes and we'll have someone escort you inside so you can get a few clothes and stuff," he told her. "It shouldn't be that unsafe."

"Michael, I know I usually don't like to point out the obvious," Kitt started as the fireman walked away, "but I believe that these ladies will need somewhere to stay."

"You're right, Kitt," Michael said letting go of Nadine. "For now you guys can stay at the foundation."

"The where?" Grandma Nelly asked politely, yet a little confused.

"Michael, we're not staying there," Nadine said, glancing at Kitt briefly. "A hotel is fine."

"Do you know how this fire started out?" Michael asked, countering her statement.

"Well, not really—"

"Well I have a hunch that it was Robert Oliver; I'm not taking a chance that he can go after you again. You'll be safe at the foundation," Michael told them.

"Mrs. Appleton? We can take one of you inside now," the same fireman said as he walked up to them once again.

"I'll go Grandma," Nadine said, giving Michael a look that told him she wasn't happy for him making a choice for her.

Nadine returned a few minutes later with a duffle bag of clothes for both her and her grandmother. Michael tossed the bag into the trunk of the Trans Am and told Kitt to let Grandma Nelly sit in the front so she didn't have to climb behind the passenger seat. Kitt agreed, but he felt a terrible coldness coming from Nadine as she sat behind Michael with her arms folded, and staring out the driver's side window.

"This is some car, Michael," Grandma Nelly said as they started down the road. She looked all over the dash, her hand laying flat on the screens to her left. "Amazing."

"It is," Michael agreed.

Going at the normal speed limit, they arrived back at the foundation half an hour later. Kitt assisted Grandma Nelly up the front steps while Michael got their bag. "Michael, we're not staying here more than a few days," Nadine said.

"You're staying here until that nut case is behind bars," Michael told her. "Whether you want to admit it or not, he's after you for whatever his reasons are. Now I'm not going to put you, or that sweet little old lady in jeopardy, got it?"

Kitt heard their short conversation as he opened the front doors only to see Devon and Bonnie making their way to see them in. "Grandma Nelly, this is Devon Miles and Bonnie Barstow—Bonnie, Devon, this is Grandma Nelly."

"Pleasure," Devon said with a smile. "Where's Michael?"

"Right here," Michael said coming through the front doors. "Devon, I know what you're gonna say."

"On the contrary, I know what you'll tell me," Devon said. "You two ladies are more than welcome here. We have a spare room, so it's not a problem."

"Spare room, to say the least," Grandma Nelly said in an exciting voice. "I haven't been in a house this big since…well I don't remember when! What a set up, Mr. Miles."

"Please, call me Devon," he told her.

"Grandma Nelly, can I get you some tea?" Bonnie asked politely.

"Oh yes, dear, that'd be nice."

Grandma Nelly followed Bonnie down the hall to the kitchen while Nadine looked around the foyer. Devon patted Michael on the shoulder and headed back to his office, leaving Kitt and Michael to figure out what to say to someone who was obviously not thrilled with her new living conditions.

"Nadine, I think you have some explaining to do," Michael said walking further in and dropping the duffle bag next to the stairs. "He has to be after more than revenge for you taking off."

"And what makes you think that?" She asked quickly.

"Because of the reason why you're standing where you are right now," Michael snapped back to counter her attitude. "Nadine, he just tried to burn down your grandmother's house. He had to have known that she was inside."

"I don't know!" Nadine argued. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

"Perhaps there's a logical explanation for this," Kitt suggested thoughtfully. "Maybe you've forgotten about something that could have upset him more than you leaving."

"Alright," Michael said, holding his hands up in defense. "I'm going to have a word with Devon. Kitt, can you show her where the guest room is?"

"Of course, Michael," Kitt said and picked up the semi-heavy duffle bag. He started up the stairs, having to pause to wait for Nadine to finally start to follow after him. "I'm sure we can find a cot if you'd like," Kitt told her, trying desperately to find a way to start up a civilized conversation with her.

Nadine didn't answer, which gave Kitt the feeling that she was not going to an easy houseguest. The guest bedroom was at the very end of the hall from where the other bedrooms were located. He opened the door and let her walk in first. "I hope you'll be comfortable."

"I suppose," she said as she looked around the room, not taking more than a few steps in. Kitt rested down the duffle bag on the undressed bed. "I'll find out where they keep the sheets and get that made up for you."

"Just find the sheets," she ordered. "I'm capable of making the bed myself."

"You know if we're going to be sharing living space then the least you could say is thank-you."

"Just because you offered to make our bed doesn't mean I've forgiven you for what you've done."

Kitt nodded and made his exit, not really concerned if she was following back downstairs or not. He went back to where Michael had gone. Devon's office door was open and before he even turned into the room he knew what they were talking about.

"Devon, I don't know what that girl's problem is, but she's insistent she doesn't know why this guy Oliver is after her," Michael explained. "That and the site of Kitt seems to make her want to hit someone."

"Yes, well, seeing that her old boyfriend was Mr. Bordeaux, then that's natural," Devon stated, pushing back in his chair. "However, I agree with you Michael; there's more than the reason than he got mad at her coming out to California."

"She claimed money," Kitt added as he came in and sat down.

"Yes, don't they all," Devon said. "I'm having Bonnie look up anything that comes up in police reports about Mr. Oliver or Miss Corvonce."

"I already took the liberty of doing that myself, Devon, and unfortunately I didn't come up with anything," Kitt said. "Except for a minor lawsuit that didn't concern Robert Oliver."

"What lawsuit?" Michael asked.

"Soon after Scott Bordeaux's accident, she was in one herself because another woman cut her off at an intersection. Nadine suffered only minor injuries; however her car would never see the pavement of a road again."

"And she sued the other woman," Michael finished. "You think that Oliver wants some of that money she got?"

"I wouldn't know," Kitt said with a shrug. "What worries me is that this Oliver just appears out of nowhere, but we can't seem to find where he's staying."

"Nadine said he had friends, so I'm willing to be he's stashing himself with them," Michael pointed out.

Devon nodded. "And unfortunately we have no real proof that he is behind the house fire, and without knowing just who his friends are we can't trace him. I'm sure he's not naïve enough to be driving around a car with Kentucky plates on it."

"Doubtful," Kitt said in agreement. "Nadine will just have to stay here until something comes up and he's caught."


	7. Part VII

**_Part VII_**

Having Grandma Nelly around the house was amusing for everyone at the Foundation for Law and Government. She was insistent on doing something in return for her room and board Devon had put up for her and Nadine. First it had been dusting Devon's office, even after he tried convincing her that they had housekeepers that were paid to do this as a living; but she wouldn't hear of it. Kitt and Michael had woken up the morning two days after the fire at her house to find a note had been slipped under their door requesting that they report to the kitchen first thing.

Neither of them had bothered to change into regular clothes; instead both appeared in the kitchen in pajama pants, Kitt a sweatshirt, and Michael a gray tee. Michael had been up first and greeted Kitt about ten minutes later with a stuffed mouth.

"Good morning, Kitt!" Grandma Nelly said quite cheerfully. "Bacon, ham, or sausage?"

"Sausage?" Kitt said a little unsure as he sat down across from Michael, realizing that the note was meant for a breakfast treat.

"How do you like your eggs, dear?"

Kitt looked at Michael's plate and wanted to make a disgusted face as the yoke of the egg ran like a river over the whites. "Preferably not like that," he said softly.

"Broken, got it," she said and went to the refrigerator for more eggs. "Two, three?"

"Two's fine…"

"This is a treat," Michael told him. "You got a note too?"

"Yes," Kitt said folding his hands on the table. "May I ask what this is all about?"

Grandma Nelly had just broken the shells and dumped the contents of the insides into the frying pan. "For being such wonderful young men to Nadine and me," she commented. "You've been very kind."

"We've hardly done anything," Michael said.

"But you've taken us in," she said as she turned over some sausage in the second pan. "That and you're looking for that terrible boyfriend of hers."

Michael chewed, but his eyes narrowed a bit. "Thing is, though, we're no closer to where we were when we took this on. The guy hasn't been seen by anyone and hunting him down is near to impossible."

"There was the bar keeper on Main Street," Kitt pointed out.

"Whom I think was more drunk than the guys he served drinks to," Michael said.

"Well, I have confidence you'll find him," Grandma Nelly said and brought over the frying pan to the table. Using the spatula, she put the eggs and sausage on Kitt's plate. "Eat up."

The breakfast was quite good. Kitt hadn't had something other than cereal in a while, for the simple reason he hadn't learned how to cook yet. He was a leery on touching a stove, afraid he'd end up torching the food instead of making it edible.

"I'm going to head to the grocery store today," Michael said as they left the kitchen and headed for the stairs. "We'll see if Robert Oliver has someone doing his shopping for him or not."

"I hope someone there will recognize him," Kitt said. "It's starting to get frustrating."

"Tell me about it," Michael said.

They started to ascend the stairs when out of nowhere Kitt grabbed the railing and leaned over it. He felt his entire body heat up and his hands trembled as the tightly gripped the railing.

"Kitt?" Michael asked quickly and put his hands on his friend's shoulder.

Kitt's eyes automatically closed and he took in a sharp breath…

_There was a lot of loud music and he was surrounded by people his age; some were dancing, others were sitting on chairs, couches or tables. There was a lot of laughter and even a heavy card game in the corner. There was a girl at his side—Nadine. She looked happy and excited. A friend came up and welcomed them, but he couldn't hear what he was saying. He seemed too distant…_

"Kitt?"

Kitt opened his eyes to see Michael looking at him with a very concerned face. He was sitting on the stairs now. "Sorry," he said softly and started to get up.

"Two more days and that will be over I hope," Michael said as they started up the stairs. "What was it this time?"

"A party, I believe," Kitt replied. "Ever since I met Nadine she's been in almost every flashback, as if she triggered another part of the memories."

---

Kitt had showered, dressed, and was downstairs within an hour's time. Michael had already left for the store, which didn't bother Kitt—he had little desire to spend another day asking questions and getting nowhere.

The sun was shining brightly, and Kitt couldn't refuse a small desire in the back of his mind that was telling him to go take a walk around the grounds and get some fresh air. Having put on the black leather jacket that Michael had given him for Christmas, he made his way outside, hands in pockets and mind clear.

It wasn't as warm as it had been, but it wasn't enough to keep people inside. There were a few people working on the grounds of the estate, someone taking out the two guard dogs, and then somebody sitting on a chair on the patio right outside the back doors. Kitt had rounded the corner and knew immediately who was sitting there, reading a book with her feet up on a chair across from her. He decided to do the polite thing and say good morning.

"Is it a good book?" He asked with a small smile, coming up next to her.

Nadine looked up, brown eyes flashing at his. "Oh, it's you."

"I'm sorry if I've disturbed you," he said.

"Well it's your home, not mine," she replied as she put her bookmark between the pages and shut the cover.

"However, you're the guest here, so it is my duty to be as hospitable as possible."

"Touché," she replied with little enthusiasm.

"Mind if I sit?"

"Your home," she repeated and looked away from him.

Kitt sighed and sat down, trying not to stare at her for answers as to why she was so cold towards him. He noticed that she was watching one of the employees now playing ball with the two guard dogs. He smiled and turned towards her. "Do you like dogs?" He asked, trying desperately to find some sort of method of conversation.

"Not really," she said.

"Oh. I'm fond of dogs as long as they're well trained. Max and Bruce are pretty obedient, you know."

"Are you here just to make pointless conversation?" She snapped suddenly.

Kitt felt hurt. "I am trying to be your friend, not your enemy."

"Well give it up," she said. "I've had enough friends to last me a life time."

"What is bothering you so much?" Kitt asked finally, his voice a becoming a little sterner.

"Who said anything's bothering me?" Kitt just glared at her with a small smile as if to say it was more than obvious. Nadine sighed and took her feet off of the chair in front of her and put her book on the table. "I haven't exactly had the easiest past few years, alright? I'm burnt out. That's all you need to know."

Kitt nodded and tried to keep his mouth shut. Then Nadine stood up and pushed her chair in under the table. "How do you get to the mall from here?" She asked.

"The mall?"

"That's what I said," Nadine told him. "I'm tired of hanging around here; I need to get out and do something."

"You shouldn't go out alone," Kitt said.

"Then I'll get Michael to go with me," she said. "He likes me enough to bring me."

Kitt wanted to tell her that he was annoyed with her attitude, but he held his tongue. "Michael's out right now trying to find if anyone has seen Robert."

"Then Bonnie wouldn't mind having a girl's day out," she said as she started for the doors.

"She's in the technology department right now," he replied simply. "Otherwise I'd be paying her a visit of my own."

Nadine looked as if she had just been let down tremendously. Kitt stood up and pushed his chair in like she had before and went over to her, hands in his coat pockets. "If you want to go to the mall, then I'll bring you."

"You?" She asked in disbelief. "I thought you had brain problems."

Kitt glared at her loathingly. "I do not have brain problems, thank-you very much. I'm stuck with seeing your ex-boyfriend's memories, and trust me its no picnic."

Nadine seemed speechless for a moment and nodded with a big sigh. "Fine; I suppose you'll be good enough company for now."

Kitt had thought that Michael would bring his own car, but when he had gone outside to leave with Nadine he found that it remained and the Knight Two Thousand was gone. He returned inside, leaving Nadine waiting impatiently on the front steps, and went to Devon.

"You're going where?" Devon asked.

"The mall," Kitt said once again. "Nadine's itching to get out of here, pardon the expression, and I figured that maybe if I spent time with her she'd stop acting as if she was about to rip my voice box out."

"I see," Devon said with a nod. "Well I'll say for Michael to use his car; I'm sure he wouldn't mind, seeing as that he took the Knight Two Thousand."

"Agreed," Kitt said and went to Michael's room to grab the set of car keys for the SUV.

"I'll drive," Nadine said going to the driver's side once Kitt returned.

"I don't think so," Kitt said stubbornly. "This isn't my car, and I'm not too sure if Michael would like the idea of you driving his vehicle."

"You guys wouldn't let me bring my own car here because you thought it'd be too easy for Robert and his goons to track me," she countered. "I'm driving." And with that she snatched the keys from his hand.

Kitt put his hands up in defeated defense and climbed into the passenger seat. "I thought you didn't know how to get the mall from here?"

"I don't," she said. "That's why you're here, remember."

Kitt bowed his head a bit and looked out the window, having a terrible feeling that this was going to be a very long outing with Nadine Corvonce. Although, her driving abilities were better than he had thought. When she started the car he had the thought of her tearing around every corner and cutting people off left and right in order to relieve any inner tension; but in fact, she was steady, followed the trafficking rules, and stayed within a suitable speed limit.

The mall seemed very crowded and even Nadine spoke out to say so, noting that it was probably shoppers returning gifts they didn't like or clothes that didn't fit right after the holidays. Right away she started walking ahead of Kitt as if he wasn't there with her. He was surprised she didn't tell him to stay in the car like a little kid or a dog.

"Nadine," he called to her. "I think we need to get one thing straight. You may not like me because of Scott, but I am here with you because you wanted to go out."

"But not with you," she replied simply and continued forward.

"At least walk instead of jog," he told her as he caught up again.

"Sure thing, Mom," was all that came out of her mouth.

Kitt followed her too a number of stores, most of the time walking in and right back out again when she found she had little interest in the merchandise. Crowds were everywhere, especially little kids yelling and running around, apparently still off from school. Being three days before the New Year was to arrive he thought that people would be with family instead of wondering around crowded corridors and bumping into people wherever they turned.

"Are you hungry?"

"I'm sorry?" Kitt said realizing that Nadine had stopped and looked at him, her hand gripping the straps of her purse and holding it on her shoulder.

"I'm asking if you're hungry—I can go for some pizza or something."

"That's fine," he said, wondering where her sudden burst of happiness came from. They made their way to the other side of the mall and into the vast crowds and chattering of the food court. Nadine immediately scoped out where the pizza stand was and led the way. Kitt pulled out his wallet from his back pocket and told her he'd pay, and for once didn't get any bickering from her.

After a few minutes of searching, they found an empty table that had three chairs around it. Hurrying over, they nabbed it just before a small group of teenagers got there, receiving nasty looks from the teens as they turned around to start their search again.

"That's hot!" Nadine said and quickly took a drink of her soda. She looked at Kitt, who waited for the pizza to cool off. "You must think I'm a real bitch."

Kitt raised his eyebrows. "What makes you think that?"

Nadine shrugged her shoulders as she poked her pizza with her finger. "I haven't been very nice to you," she admitted. "I'm not usually like that. So I guess I'm sorry."

"It's understandable," Kitt said and picked up his pizza. "You've been through a lot with this whole Robert situation."

"You have no idea what I've been through," she said and took a bite of the pizza, using her fingers to break off the cheese that made a web from her mouth to the crust. "That's what made Scott and me so perfect for each other."

"What do you mean?"

She sighed and put the pizza back on the paper plate. "Scott and I both had rough childhoods. He was an orphan and had no family here in the States, and my mother picked up and left my dad with two kids to raise when I was about four. I barely remember her—haven't heard from her since she left."

"Why did she leave?" Kitt asked, then realizing that maybe that wasn't the best question.

"She couldn't take the pressure of being a wife and a mother of two. Once I came along, that was it; I guess she was accepting having a son, but when she got pregnant with me a year after he was born, she started to lose it. Whatever."

Kitt continued to eat as she played with the cheese on her food. He hadn't expected her to continue, but she did. "I met Scott when I was in college—a community college, mind you. My dad couldn't afford to put me through anything more; actually I paid for it even though I had a job that paid practically nothing. Anyway, Scott was so perfect when we first met; he was cute, nice, outgoing, and understood me better than anyone did before. By the time college came to an end, we had plans on moving in together and getting married when we could afford it."

Kitt looked at her face and as if for the first time noticed just how pretty she was, once one got past the frown she usually had on. _She looked at the ring on her finger with bright eyes. He could hear her thanking him and then she threw her arms around his neck. He hugged her tightly. She was so happy—and so was he…_

"Are you okay?"

Kitt looked at her. She had tilted her head and looked fearful as she stared straight at him. "Sorry," he said. "Spaced out for a moment, I think."

"You don't care to hear me go on and complain, huh?"

"Nadine, I'm here to listen if you want me to," he told her truthfully. "I'm on your side."

She nodded but didn't speak for a minute as she took a few more bites from her pizza. Then Kitt noticed a tear trailing down her cheek. "It's just that…looking at you reminds me all over again. When I got the phone call from Josh that they were in an accident….My world seemed to crash down around me that very moment. Sam had died instantly and Scott was in a coma; Josh survived, but had a broken shoulder. I went to see Scott every day for a month, hoping and praying that he'd open his eyes and look at me and then everything would be back to normal; we'd get married, and live happily ever after." By now her eyes were filled with tears and she fought to keep them back.

"My best friend Sarah wanted to help and get my mind off him; we all knew Scott would never be the same, even if he ever did get out of that coma. The doctor said there was just too much damage to his memory and whatever. So, she introduced me to her next door neighbor."

"Robert," Kitt said.

Nadine nodded a yes. "He was so much fun and he was always making me laugh. My visits to Scott grew less and less, and the next thing I knew I hadn't seen him for two weeks."

"It was probably better that way though," Kitt told her. "I'm sure you were bringing yourself down every time you saw Scott."

"Yeah, you're right, I was—" Out of nowhere her face seemed to become ghostly white and her eyes widened.

"Something wrong?" Kitt asked.

"Robert's watching us," she said and quickly looked away and down at the floor. "He saw me, Kitt! What do I do?"

Kitt looked over his shoulder, a mistake he wondered, and saw that Robert Oliver, along with two other men were walking over to them. "C'mon," he said and grabbed Nadine's arm to pull her up.

Nadine took his pace and they walked as quickly as they could through the food court and down the center walkway of the mall to get away and hopefully lose Robert and his friends. "Are they still there?" She asked, holding onto her purse as if it was her lifeline.

Kitt glanced over his shoulder. "They're jogging, and now we'll run…" Both Kitt and Nadine broke out into a slow run, trying not to stir up the crowd and cause people to stop in front of them and keep them from getting away. Kitt looked over his shoulder for a third time and saw that they were running after them. "We have to get back to the car!" He said.

Nadine was in a panic as they ran through the people, knocked over a trashcan into the center of the isle, and hurried towards the doors they had come in from. As she ran, Nadine searched her purse for the keys to Michael's car.

Kitt held the door open for her as she slowed down, trying desperately to find the keys. "C'mon," he urged as he held her arm while they hurried through the spaces between the parked cars in the lot.

"Found them," she said quickly and clicked the remote before they had reached the isle where the car was parked.

They both heard a gunshot and Nadine let out a scream, instinctively pausing to cover her head with both her arms. "Don't stop!" Kitt told her, wishing that they had his old body instead of Michael's plain SUV.

Finally reaching the vehicle and hearing two more gunshots, Nadine jumped into the driver's seat, Kitt quickly swinging around to the passenger side and hopping in. "Hurry!" He told her as her shaking hand tried to find the ignition.

Kitt thanked his remaining circuits that a car wasn't parked in front of them and they could drive right through. He looked in the side mirror to see that only one of their pursuers was coming through the isle before them. He turned around to look for the others and saw that they were busy backing out a small blue Chevy. "They're getting their own car," he said as Nadine finally got the engine to roar.

She stepped on the gas and drove around the car that had been parked diagonal from them. Kitt heard glass shatter as a bullet had narrowly missed them and hit the windshield of the other car. He quickly tried to buckle his seatbelt as Nadine swerved to avoid hitting a taxi, then pushing the peddle down to the floor of the car.

"Oh my God they're right behind us," she said after glancing into the rear view mirror.

"Don't stop," Kitt told her as he looked in the side mirror again to keep track of where they're attackers were. He saw that Robert's friend was driving and Robert himself was leaning out of the window pointing a gun at them.

"Turn there!" Kitt pointed and Nadine turned the car so sharply Kitt was amazed they didn't tip over. His stomach was turning and all he could do was watch as they missed a dog running into the street, then turn another corner and hitting garbage cans in the process. He heard another gunshot and the cracking of glass. They were right behind them and the back window of the SUV now sported a spider-web crack on the right side.

"Traffic, traffic!" Kitt yelled out as Nadine turned off the side street and drove through a busy intersection, turning the wheel constantly to avoid hitting cars; Kitt saw that innocent drivers weren't so lucky to avoid a collision.

All that was flashing through Kitt's mind beside the thought that he might die was the night Scott Bordeaux got into that accident, with flashing headlights, crumbling metal, and screeching tires. Kitt looked over at Nadine who was terrified as she continued to drive—but the sound of a large pop and the instant feeling of the SUV leaning sideways hit them; Robert had shot the back right tire.

Nadine yelled as she lost control and the SUV jumped a curb, coming down on two tires; the top-heaviness causing the vehicle to lean, fall, and roll over onto its roof.


	8. Part VIII

**_Part VIII_**

Kitt sat in a very small and plain white waiting room in Red Wood Memorial Hospital; his body leaned over slightly forward with his hands folded on his lap. The rushing of four people into the room gave him a startle, but he let out a sigh of relief when he saw who it was.

"My God, Kitt, are you all right?" Bonnie asked in a rush, putting her hands on Kitt's arms as he stood up to greet them.

"I'm fine," he said as he nodded to her. "Just this cut on the side of my forehead, but that's not even deep."

"What happened?" Michael asked in a relieved, yet still shocked voice.

"Where's Nadine?" Grandma Nelly asked quickly, poking through Devon and Michael. "Is she okay?"

Kitt nodded. "Her arm broke when the car flipped over, but otherwise she's okay. The doctors are setting her into a cast now, as far as I know." He sat back down, mostly to try and relax like the doctors had told him to after having been in such a terrible accident. "I'm sorry about your car, Michael."

"It can be replaced," Michael said quickly and held his hand out, palm at the floor. "Now explain what happened."

Kitt shrugged and took in a deep breath. "Robert Oliver found us in the mall," he said honestly and simply. "We ran to the car, Robert on our heals, and ended up in a car chase with him shooting at us."

"Oh my word," Grandma Nelly said in awe, holding her hand to her mouth and sitting down slowly. Devon sat down next to her and put his hand on her shoulder to assure her everything would be fine.

"You were driving, I expect?" Devon asked.

Kitt shook his head. "Nadine was. We flipped over when he blew out the back tire with the gun and she couldn't keep it under control."

"Did you get a look at the license plate?" Michael asked.

"I didn't see one on the front of the car," Kitt replied. "If I remember correctly, though, it was a blue Chevy Malibu."

"Police reported that witnesses turned in the same type of car," Devon said. "I'll have Bonnie get on the owners of every blue Malibu in the state, more importantly this surrounding area."

"At least the two of you didn't get seriously hurt," Bonnie said. "I almost had a heart attack when the police called."

"It's not something I had wanted to go through again," Kitt told her. "Being a car rolling over is bad enough—being a passenger is nerve wrecking."

"Tell me about it," Michael said, although he wasn't very enlightened. "All of this going on before you're having surgery."

"I know," Kitt said. "They said that making it out the way I did won't affect it, thankfully."

"Yes, well, the most important thing is that both you and Nadine are alive," Devon said standing and smoothing down his suit jacket. "The sooner Robert Oliver is behind bars the better for us all."

Michael nodded, although Kitt could see in his eyes that he was thinking something more than finding their fugitive and nailing him for the crimes he's committed in the past few weeks. The look in Michael's eyes wasn't exactly a plan, but it could very possibly be something leading towards one.

The next day Kitt was on edge, and not because of the previous day's accident, but because he was nervous about the surgery. Bonnie had brought up from the laboratories a box about the size of a VCR. He knew exactly what it was the moment he saw it. It was a very similar device they had used to put "him" in when something had happened to the Knight Two Thousand. He remembered several occasions; one clearly in his mind was when the car was stolen and he was tossed out. Being in that box was Closter phobic, even to a computer, and the thought that he might have to experience it again if the surgery wasn't immediately curable was a little frightening.

However, he had found comforting words in the unlikeliest of people that afternoon—Nadine. She had found him leaving the parlor and she steadily came up to him, her left arm now hung in a sling with a purple plaster cast surrounding her hand and wrist. "Kitt!" She called out to nab his attention. "May I have a word with you?"

Kitt nodded and put his hands in his trouser pockets. She gave him a friendly smile, probably the best he had ever seen her wear. Her hair wasn't pulled back into her usual ponytail, but it gracefully hung and just barely draped past her shoulders.

"I wanted to thank-you," she said softly, "for keeping a straight head through yesterday. If it was just me, I would've panicked…and who knows what would've happened."

"I'm sorry that it happened," he said. "I had hoped that by now we'd have a lead on Robert."

Nadine nodded but started walking with him towards the front of the house. "Me too, but you guys have been great. Like I said yesterday, I haven't been really grateful and nice to you guys—especially you, Kitt. And I—"

They were stopped in the open foyer of the room where the front desk and the staircase was. Resting her hand on the desk was someone Kitt never expected to see at that moment, if ever again.

"Rachael," he said appalled. "What are you doing here?"

Rachael moved away from the desk where Cathy was seated, although Cathy left through the door behind her into the office when she felt the tension rise up in the room. Rachael stared at Kitt and then her gaze switched to look over the young brunette next to him.

"Obviously for the wrong reason," she said bitterly.

"Rachael, it is a pleasant surprise," Kitt tried to mend, taking a few steps towards her.

Rachael adjusted the strap of her purse on her shoulder. "I'm sure it is, Kitt. Aren't you going to introduce me to her?"

Kitt turned slightly to notice that Nadine was still there and then quickly understood why there was a sour feeling to Rachael's tone. "Oh, this is Nadine Corvonce. Nadine, this is Rachael Bloomdom."

"Hi," Nadine said, not quite sure of what relation Rachael was to Kitt, having never heard of her before.

"Well, I see that you two are busy," Rachael said. "Didn't take you long to replace me, did it Kitt?"

"I don't quite know what you mean by that," Kitt said honestly.

"Oh I think you do," Rachael snapped. "The stuff I heard about Michael Knight and his girls was passed onto you, I see."

"Rachael—"

"I heard you were having surgery tomorrow, so I thought I'd come by and see you while I picked up my stuff. So good luck with tomorrow and your life," she quickly finished and started out the door.

Ignoring Nadine for the time being, Kitt rushed after her, not bothering to shut the door behind him. "Rachael! Rachael, it's not what you think!"

"And what do I think?" She asked spinning around on her heals to face him.

"That Nadine is my girlfriend," he replied. "She's here on foundation business—a case."

"And you're defending yourself why?"

"Because you're acting as if I cheated on you! Although, you're the one who hasn't spoken to me since our fight last month."

"I figured you were told I went to my mother's," she replied with an edge to her voice.

"And why, may I ask, couldn't you have told me yourself? Did I upset you that much?"

"Yeah, you did actually," she snapped back. "You telling me that maybe we shouldn't be together really hurt, Kitt!"

"And you telling me that I'm nothing but a computer in a human body? That wasn't supposed to hurt?"

"Well, it's the truth!"

"Which is beside the point, Rachael," Kitt said, trying to keep his composure, although that was harder than he'd admit.

"Kitt, we just aren't relationship material," Rachael said in a much calmer tone. "I thought that if I stayed away from you for a while that I'd realize how much I loved you, but now coming home and going through this again, I see that that wasn't the case." Kitt sighed and turned his head. "Maybe I'll see you around town or something," Rachael told him as she went towards her car.

Kitt looked back at her quickly. "Aren't you working here anymore?"

"No," she said, "I quit. I can't work at a place where I'd see you all the time, no offense or anything."

Kitt watched her open the car door and throw her purse across the interior into the passenger seat. "Good-bye, Kitt."

"Farewell, Rachael…" At that point she had gotten into the car and probably didn't see him even saying the words. She was off within seconds and Kitt was left on the front stairs of the Knight Mansion feeling like he had run into a brick wall without the benefit of a molecular bonded shell.

He had to admit that since Nadine's case came about he hadn't thought much about Rachael. Their second fight wasn't expected, but then again, he should have known it'd come if he saw her again. Michael was right; they just weren't meant to be.

Returning into the house, he saw that Cathy was back at her post behind the front desk, but Nadine was nowhere to be seen. He figured she felt out of place with Rachael's sudden appearance, and probably hurt that he ran off when she was in the middle of apologizing to him for her own rudeness.

Kitt had thought it'd be best to seek her out and tell her what had happened, not to mention tell her he was sorry for forgetting she existed when Rachael appeared. Finding Nadine wasn't hard, but he soon found that he should keep his distance when he heard Michael in the room.

"Michael, I already told you what happened," she said.

"Nadine," Michael said, his voice calm yet forceful, "you need to tell us the truth about you and Robert."

"I did tell you the truth!"

"Cut the crap, Nadine," he said now sternly. "You and Kitt could've been killed yesterday! Oliver is after you for more than revenge and I want to know why right now."

Kitt could tell Michael was talking through gritted teeth. He usually did when he was angry and annoyed. He could hear small sobs coming from Nadine. There was a long pause. Kitt waited patiently for more to come, and finally it did.

"Last summer, August 2nd, was Robert's birthday," she started softly. "We had dinner reservations at his favorite restaurant, but I wanted to surprise him and show up early with his present. When I got to his house there were two strange cars I had never seen before in the driveway. I figured it was just friends, but when I got up to the front door I heard yelling. Then I heard glass shattering, so I ducked down and peaked through the window. There were three other men in there, and the glass was the top of the coffee table shattering and one of them lay on the broken pieces, whether having fallen or was thrown there, I don't know."

She took a moment to collect her thoughts and catch her breath as she cried. "Their voices were muffled, but it was something about the dough was gone and he'd pay—I guess the guy on the floor. Robert pulled out a gun from the drawer and pointed it at the guy on the floor. I could tell the guy was pleading with him, but I still couldn't figure out what happened."

"Did Robert shoot the man on the floor?" Michael asked. Kitt now understood where this story was going and how it linked to her.

Kitt could hear her steady sobs. "When Robert turned after shooting him three times, he saw me in the window—I didn't duck fast enough." She paused for a moment again. "He told me that if I didn't keep my mouth shut about what I saw he'd kill me. He made me swear the information of that and the fact that he was a drug dealer would be kept quiet."

"A drug dealer? No wonder he's after you," Michael replied. "You should've gone to the local authorities."

"I couldn't," Nadine said in an almost pleading voice. "I couldn't seem to get away from him! He knew my every move! Those guys he was with that night were customers for the drugs or whatever and somehow they started working for him to keep an eye out for me. I was even afraid to make a phone call to my brother or friend because I thought the phone lines were tapped. And every time I went out, he insisted on going with me. Michael, I got to the point where I didn't know who I was anymore….All I wanted was to be free from all of that; I thought coming to live with my grandmother would be the best thing. I didn't even pause to think that he'd follow me out here too."

Kitt took this as a time to pretend he had no idea what they were talking about and walk in. "Oh, were you two busy?" Both of them were sitting on the couch, but Kitt knew Michael's arm around her shoulders was for comfort rather than anything else.

"No, no," Michael replied and stood up. "Kitt, I think we need to go have a chat with Bonnie while she's still looking up the cars."

As Kitt followed behind Michael when he started out the door, Nadine stood up with her hands folded in a ball against her chest. "Michael, I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner."

Michael nodded. "I understand; you just have to trust us, okay?"

"Okay."

It was like old times when Michael walked into Devon's office to see him on the phone and Bonnie at the computer in the corner typing away like a mad woman. Kitt was visually unfamiliar with the scene, but he knew what was going on just the same.

"Bonnie, I need you to look up a murder last August in Maysville, Kentucky," Michael said as he put one hand on the back of her chair and the other on the desk, leaning over her shoulder.

"One moment," Bonnie said as she reached to the left to catch a paper that was coming out of the printer. "I just finished all the DMV listings for blue Chevy Malibu's within a twenty mile radius."

"And?"

"There's actually not that many, which makes things a little easier," she said handing him the paper. "Four belong to people over the age of sixty, two were just recently totaled, and about a dozen belong to people anywhere between the ages of eighteen and fifty."

"Sounds like we have our work cut out for us," Kitt said trying to get a glance at the list.

"Yes," Bonnie said, but there was a slight kink in her voice. "But there is one car on that list that I found a little interesting. I think it's….yes, this one." She pointed to a name on the list. "Peter White had his beige Malibu repainted to blue two months ago."

"So?" Michael asked looking at the name and address.

"Peter White was wanted for multiple DUI in New Mexico and Arizona, not to mention kidnapping in Nevada."

"Not exactly a clean record," Michael said. "Which is probably why he had his car repainted so people couldn't track him easily, not to mention coming to California to slip away from police in those three states?"

"Exactly," Bonnie said satisfied.

Devon got up from his seat and went over to the group around the computer. "I just got off the phone with the commissioner," he said, "and they found the blue car."

"Really?" Kitt asked hopefully.

"Yes, in a parking lot near the supermarket," he said. "Unfortunately an eyewitness told police that two men in hats and large collared coats left the car and continued their way across the street and that was nearly four hours ago."

"So they abandoned it," Michael said tossing the print out into the trash can. "Wonderful."

"There's still the address, Michael," Kitt pointed out.

"Yeah, Kitt, but that address is the motel on 45th Avenue on the other side of town," he said. "That gives them an easy out."

"I'm sure you'll figure something out," Devon said with a smile. "You always do."


	9. Part IX

**_Part IX_**

By the next morning, Michael and Kitt had learned that Peter White had checked out of his room the previous day. He had been there for a little less than a month and paid the bill in cash. Michael and Kitt couldn't get anything else out of the manager, except that White had gotten into a gray car that had two other men in it.

Kitt had a hard time accepting that the manager had no idea what type of car it was, not even telling them if it was new or old. Michael pointed out that not everyone was familiar with cars, except maybe the ones they drove. Kitt, though, felt the same as Michael did—they had returned back to the foundation empty handed.

Unfortunately for Kitt, though, the day had come and he'd have to stay away from Nadine's case for a while. Perhaps it was because he didn't have the human nerves when he started his whole conversion, but he found that his stomach had no desire to calm down as they arrived at the hospital.

"Kitt, everything's going to be fine," Michael assured him.

"Michael?" Kitt said as they arrived on the floor they were due on.

"Yeah?"

"Please be quiet."

They signed in and within minutes Kitt was called in for preparation. He changed into the flimsy gown and felt like a fool sitting on the bed with Michael, Bonnie and Devon standing around him.

After a while, a nurse came in and checked his blood pressure and started to hook him up to the I.V. unit. Kitt could feel his stomach twist even more so than before when his friends were told nurses would be right in to take Kitt and they could wait in the small waiting room outside.

Kitt lay down on the bed and looked around as four nurses came in and rolled the stretcher out of the room. He tried to look down towards his feet to where they were pushing him, but that wasn't exactly comfortable. Through two large double doors they went and into a room with three large lights hanging from the center of the ceiling and a table under that.

"Alright," Dr. Larson said coming up to him. "Are you ready, Mr. Knight?"

"Not really, but I don't think I have a choice in the matter," Kitt replied.

Dr. Larson laughed and waved over a nurse. She held a mask, and Kitt knew what was about to happen. They told him to start counting backwards, starting at ten. The mask was put over his mouth and he smelt a funny odor as he mentally said ten, nine…and then he was gone.

óóó

As he did the first time Kitt underwent "human surgery" Michael was as close to his side as he could get while Kitt was under. Kitt had been there for well over two weeks and Michael had been there as much as possible to spend time with his friend as he started his life as a human; he wasn't about to desert him this time—the procedure was just as complicated and stressful.

But it wasn't half as long as the twelve hours he spent waiting before a nurse came by to tell him that the procedure was finished. However, he was hoping that Kitt's chip wasn't the problem and that it just wasn't installed properly the first time. Bonnie told him that chances were that it was the chip, not the doctors, although Michael thought that they should've inspected it before they put it in.

As planned, Kitt's memory chip had been taken out after they got in his head and discovered that it was faulty. To prevent complications, the doctors kept the body in a temporary and harmless coma induced sleep to prevent complications between the brain and the lack of the memory chip that it had been accustomed to. They'd replace it the following morning after a clear copy had been made.

And as for the memory chip itself, the head scientist of the operation had put Kitt's it into the black box that was equipped with the voice modulator so he could communicate with anyone during the night.

Michael didn't understand everything that was basically going on. The extent of his knowledge was that Kitt's memory chip was now in the box for the night and they'd put the new one in his head tomorrow and destroy the present one once everything was operational. Basically, as he understood it, Kitt was getting all new parts in his head. He didn't like the sound of it, but Bonnie assured him that he'd be fine.

Doctor Larson had told them it was okay to go see Kitt whenever they were ready. He claimed the procedure went well and according to plan. They made their way down the hall and into the small private room they had put Kitt's body in. There was a tube going down his throat, and wires and small tubes littered the white hospital bed.

"Kitt?" Michael said after noticing the black box on the bedside table.

There was a short silence, but finally the familiar voice panel lit up in its three red bars and sound emitted into the air. "Michael?"

"Hey," Michael said with a smile. "How are you feeling, buddy?"

"I don't feel a thing, Michael," Kitt replied. "I'm assuming they have to repair the chip?"

"Yes, but Dr. Larson gave full assurance that after this, you'll be as normal as us," Bonnie told him.

"As you and Devon, you mean," Kitt joked. "Michael wouldn't fit into that category."

"Wise guy," Michael said with a small laugh.

Later that evening Michael had joined Bonnie in the cafeteria for dinner. Devon had gone home, hopefully to find some progress had been made on the search for Robert Oliver or Peter White. During that time, Michael realized just how much he disliked cafeteria food from places like that when he opened his small box of chicken nuggets to find that every piece was practically mush on the outside and sat next to uncooked carrots and stale-tasting mashed potatoes.

What he didn't expect, though, was to see Nadine coming up to them as they ate. "You don't look very happy to be eating that," she said with a small laugh.

"If you want it, you're more than welcome," Michael told her, holding up the tray.

"No thanks, I've eaten real food," she said. "Mind if I join you two?"

"Not at all," Bonnie said nodding to the seat next to her. "Did you drive yourself?"

"Max the security guard agreed to drop me off on his way home, seeing that he lives two blocks away from here," she explained. "How's Kitt?"

Michael nodded as he quickly washed down the last of the mushy nuggets with his Coke. "He's good. They're going to finish tomorrow afternoon."

"Finish tomorrow? Why not when they were in?" She asked, having not heard of what the possibilities had been.

Bonnie laughed. "Don't worry, they didn't quit for the night and go home for dinner. They have to make a new memory chip since the first one was damaged. But they put that chip into a portable unit for the time being so he's not completely out of commission."

Nadine narrowed her eyes and raised half of her brow. "Why didn't they just put the new one in right away?"

"They have to copy his memory," Bonnie said. "Either that or he'll have no recollection as to what happened for the past six months."

"So when are they going to do that?"

"It's actually in process now," Bonnie told her. "The head scientist at the foundation developed a system that would copy his memory during the night, but it wouldn't interfere with any interaction with us or nurses or whoever while it was working."

"I see," Nadine said. "I never was much of a science kid."

Michael laughed and got up with his tray. "Don't worry; even after working with science's best creation, I still don't get it." He threw away the contents on the tray and then proceeded to do the same with Bonnie's.

"You want to talk to him?" Michael asked Nadine as he picked up his jacket.

"Talk to him? How?" Nadine asked, looking to both Michael and Bonnie.

"Same way I talked to him for over a decade," Michael said with a smirk.

"Well, you two go on. I'm going to head across the street to the convenience store," Bonnie said.

"All right, we'll see you later," Michael replied and gave her a quick kiss good-bye. Then it was up the third floor to where Kitt was. Michael let Nadine go in first, but he could tell that she felt awkward.

"My God," she said softly as she looked at how much he was hooked up to. "Can this work a second time? I mean, he can't go into a coma like Scott did, can he?"

Michael shook his head. "No, they said that basically he's just being kept asleep for now until they bring him back into the operating room." He laughed. "I don't know—it's more science I don't understand. He might be able to explain it though, if you asked."

"Yeah, I'll remember to do that," she said with a small smile. Slowly she walked around the side of the bed and stared down at him, her coat draped over both of her arms in front of her, her eyes resting on his face.

"Well, I'll leave you two alone for a while. I'm gonna run down the hall to the little boys' room," Michael said and left the room before Nadine caught onto what he said.

Nadine looked around the room and listened to the steady pinging sound of the heart monitor. She laid her coat on the back of one of the two chairs that sat in the corner of the room and then went back to his side, putting her hand on his, although she avoided the needle that was inserted.

"I wish I didn't have to see you like this," she said softly to herself. "I'm not fond of scenes where people are hooked up like a TV set."

"Do I really look that bad?"

Nadine looked around. "Kitt?"

"Yes?"

Finally she noticed the black box on the table and realized that's where the sound was coming from. She bent over so she could be face to face with it. "Are you in this thing?"

"If you mean this small CPU-like hell hole, then yes," he said sarcastically. "It's a tight fit, but seeing that's its only until tomorrow, I'll survive."

Nadine laughed. "Can you see me?"

"No, unfortunately not," Kitt replied light heartedly. "The extent of my capabilities in this thing is hearing and talking. That's about it, I'm afraid. However, I'd be most appreciative if you told me whom I was speaking to."

"You can't tell?"

"I heard the vibrations and I can pick up the words, but with a voice analyzer, I haven't the slightest clue."

"That stinks," she said. "It's Nadine." She pulled up one of the chairs next to the bedside and looked over the box, forgetting for a while that his body was next to her on the bed. "So this is what you lived through for ten years?"  
"Only in a car," Kitt said. "Except I could see you, of course with the monitors I was equipped with."

Nadine thought it quite amusing to see the three bars of light beam at different rates as he said each word. "I guess I really misjudged you, Kitt."

"How so?"

Nadine was quiet for a while as she thought it over in her own head. She had always disliked Kitt because she felt that he stole Scott's body; she had gotten over the fact that Scott wasn't coming back, and it was probably better this way, but never did she even start to attempt to think of just what Kitt was like outside of looking like her ex-fiancé.

"Nadine? Are you still here?"

"Yeah, I'm here, sorry," she said, looking at the man on the bed. "Kitt, I never really thought about you as…well, you. I mean, you're a computer."

"Thank you for pointing that out," he said humorously.

Nadine smiled, although she remembered he couldn't see it. "What I mean is that you're a computer that's human in every way except form. I have to admit, you're better than a lot of people I know."

"Thank you," Kitt said.

Nadine picked up a hint of embarrassment in his voice. Unfortunately, though, their conversation was cut off when Michael returned and asked how they were doing. Nadine couldn't bring herself to talk to Kitt with Michael there. It wasn't that she felt ridiculous, but the fact that she wanted to restate her apology to Kitt and ask him to give her a second chance…because she was going to definitely give him one.

óóó

Kitt was disappointed that he missed the ringing in of the New Year with Michael and Bonnie like they had planned to do before they knew he'd be spending the holiday at Red Wood Memorial. Yet the nurses had grown to like Kitt's personality, not to mention Michael was convinced that the head nurse had a crush on him (Michael), which all together got them the permission to stay the night and celebrate with Kitt as he stayed in the black box.

It never occurred to Kitt that Dr. Larson and his crew would be taking a good chunk of time out of the holiday to finish the procedure; he had to remember to thank them greatly for it. But it was over and done with by six o'clock New Year's Day and Kitt was out of the box and back to being his human self.

He slept for a good portion of that night, waking up long enough to convince Michael and Bonnie that they could go home and get some sleep after they, including Nadine and Devon, had spent the entire night there the day before.

Sunday morning, though, Kitt was awake and aware of everything going on. Dr. Larson called up on him to see how he was making out, and left after calling Kitt the miracle project several times. Just as the doctor left, Michael and the crew walked in.

"Look at you all wide awake!" Michael commented with a large white smile. "Any flashbacks?"

"So far no," Kitt replied with relief. "Last night was dreamless, as far as I remember."

"Good," Bonnie said. "Maybe now you can stay away from this place."

"It will be a pleasure," Kitt laughed.

"And more good news," Devon piped in. Kitt saw that he was wearing the sweater they gave him for Christmas and a plain pair of beige slacks. "The local police found Peter White and brought him and his collaborator in last night."

"That is good news," Kitt said. "Did they get anything out of him?"

Devon gave a slight roll of the eyes and tilted his head in a shrug. "Not much, I'm afraid, at least what would be of any value to us. He admitted to running away from police in now four states, admitted to driving after you and Miss Corvonce while Robert Oliver shot at you, but the only thing he said about Oliver's whereabouts was that he high tailed it out of here, to quote directly."

Kitt sighed. Bonnie sat on the edge of his bed and put her hand on his. "Don't worry, Kitt. His friends are behind bars and it's only a matter of time before he is too. You, on the other hand, have more important things to worry about."

"Such as?"

"Getting better so you can come home by Tuesday," she said with a smile.

"So soon?" Kitt asked astonished.

Michael looked at Bonnie with a fake surprised look. "Yeah, so soon?"

Bonnie shook her head and gave him a light punch in the shoulder with her fist. "You're body's already adapted to you for the most part; they'll keep you here for a few days, and then have a visiting nurse come to the house every day to check up on you."

"What fun," Kitt said dully. He wasn't a fan of those visiting nurses who seemed to have the thought that he was completely helpless and might die at any moment.

"Unless you want to stay here for a few weeks, of course," Devon said trying to suppress a smile.

"Tuesday it is," Kitt said.

Although Devon protested at first, saying that gambling wasn't appropriate for a hospital, the four of them sat in Kitt's room, the tray table over the bed, and played poker for two and a half straight hours. Devon happened to win three games, Kitt five, and Bonnie twice; Michael claimed they were cheating and ganged up on him to prevent him from winning.

After that, Devon left, leaving Michael and Bonnie to join Kitt in watching "It's A Wonderful Life" making Michael complain that he failed to see the point as to why it was a classic.

Dinner time rolled around, and Kitt encouraged them to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner instead of sticking around the hospital. Michael agreed, although it took a little more persuasion to get Bonnie to leave, she having the thought that it was rude and selfish to Kitt to leave him to be subjected to the hospital food.

When his meal was brought, Kitt silently wished to himself that he was with them instead of suffering through soup and Jell-O. He asked if he could have something more appetizing, but the nurse said that he could only eat light for now.

"Arguing with the nurse, huh?"

Kitt looked up and put his spoon back in his bowl. "Nadine," he said with a smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Thought I'd pop by and see how the patient is doing," she said with a cheerful smile, the most cheerful Kitt had ever seen her with.

"Please, pull up a chair," he said and quickly offered her his Jell-O.

"No thanks," she said looking at the green wobbling food in the small plastic dish. "We already ate before we came."

"We?"

"My grandmother's on her way up. She saw someone she knew downstairs and they got caught in a conversation. I wasn't about to hang around while they compared wrinkles."

Kitt tried not to let himself laugh to hard, afraid he'd pop a stitch in his head, although he knew that the chances were slim.

Nadine looked at the wrapping on the top of his scalp and shook her head. "Trying out new nightcaps?"

It took a moment for Kitt to figure out what she was jesting at, but then his mouth formed a quick smirk. "Don't tell me you don't like it," Kitt said with a wink.

"Did they have to shave your hair off?" She asked innocently.

"They didn't last time," he replied, "so to my knowledge, no. At least I hope not."

"You seem a little perkier than you were the other day," she commented. "Although I must say it was amusing to hear you, but not see you, but still be in the same room as you." Kitt gave her a bazaar look, not having the slightest clue what she was talking about.

"Kitt, don't you remember our chit-chatting New Year's Eve?"

"I'm afraid not," he said. "You must be talking about when I was in the box."

"Yeah," she said with a nod. "Every time you spoke you had these little lights flash on for every word."

"Ah, yes, the voice unit," Kitt recalled his old function. "I'm afraid I don't remember anything that happened before I went under that morning. They copied the existing memory on the chip; no new information was put on it during the process."

Nadine let out a heavy sigh. She confessed to him about being wonderful for nothing; he had no idea she did it. She attempted an apology for the second time, and he didn't hear it. Her grandmother walking into the room, however, hurrying over and giving Kitt a quick kiss on the nose was enough to help her forget for the time being.


	10. Part X

**_Part X_**

Tuesday morning came fast enough, Kitt supposed. He was more than happy to sign the release his release form and the permission sheet the visiting nurse needed before she could visit the foundation every day. Michael and Bonnie arrived in the foundation's limousine to bring him home. A young girl that worked as part of the hospital staff brought him to the car in a wheel chair, as was policy for someone being released, but when Kitt stood up to take those few steps into the car, he felt wobbly and weak.

"Are you going to make it?" Michael joked.

"Do you expect any less?" Kitt said back as he took a seat, watching as they piled in after him.

"I heard Nadine came to visit you last night," Michael told him.

"Yes. For the second time, as I understand it," Kitt said. "She seemed rather bothered when I told her I had no idea of her first visit."

"If I knew you wouldn't remember that night, I would've stayed home," Michael winked. "I think she's taking a liking to you, though, pal."

"I doubt it," Kitt stated. "I have nothing to offer her except a face that looks like her old boyfriend's."

"Kitt, you're personality is what wins everyone over," Bonnie put in. "Besides, Nadine's been much better since that car accident. I think she realized what she was up against and that we were there to help her."

"That and those two jerks are in jail," Michael added. "They confirmed the suspicions though," he continued. "They were present on the night of the shooting in Kentucky."

"Were they?" Kitt asked, happy to hear that two of the three responsible for this mess were in police custody.

Michael nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. "They brought the victim in when he didn't pay for the drugs. The argument that happened when this Willy Suthers refused to pay, even after he and his family was threatened by Oliver and his goons."

Kitt shook his head. "I'd feel much better if he was with his friends."

"I think we all agree with you on that," Bonnie said. "He was spotted in a San Diego bar last night, but some woman jumped up, shouted his name and pointed, and said that she saw him in the newspaper."

"Perfect," Kitt said. "Why people have to intoxicate themselves with alcoholic beverages is beyond me; they only end up acting like fools and ruining things for others."

The Knight Foundation never looked so good, Kitt thought, when the limousine pulled into the driveway and swung around the front turnabout. And to his pleasant surprise, Nadine and Grandma Nelly stood with Devon on the front steps to welcome him back.

"What's all this?" Michael asked. "I had been shot how many times and I never got this sort of welcome."

"Ah, well you didn't have us around," Grandma Nelly said with a bright expression. "And I made a cake for you, Kitt. It's on the kitchen table."

"A cake too?" Michael asked in astonishment. "I never got cakes," he said looking down at Bonnie.

Bonnie smirked and shrugged her shoulders. "You didn't have Grandma Nelly back then."

"Everyone's a comedian," he said as they shuffled back through the front doors.

They spent most of the day in the parlor watching movies; a classic for Devon, a romance for Bonnie, Nadine and Grandma Nelly, and an action/comedy for Michael and Kitt. Popcorn became their main substance, not to mention by the time the last movie's end credits rolled, Kitt's welcome-home cake was long gone.

Everyone enjoyed the chocolate cake so much Grandma Nelly felt she should make another one, this time addressed to everyone for helping her granddaughter like they had. Devon laughed and said that he had had enough sweets for the day, receiving and agreeing nod from Kitt, but Grandma Nelly insisted.

"I'll just make a quick trip down to the supermarket and pick up some more eggs," she said. "Making breakfasts and all these sweets wiped all the eggs in the house out."

"I'll drive you down there, if you want," Michael offered.

"Don't be silly," she responded as she picked herself up off the chair and started for the front door.

Nadine sighed. "Don't worry, I'll go with her."

"Do you think that wise?" Kitt asked. "I mean, Robert's still out there."

Nadine shook her head and made a face that said she didn't think anything of it. "Who'd be stupid enough to do anything amongst a mass of people in a store like that? I'll wear a hat, so even if he was around, he'd never recognize me."

"How can you be sure?" Devon asked a tad bit of sarcasm in his voice.

"He's never seen me wear a hat," she said simply and followed after her grandmother.

Devon shrugged when everyone turned heads to his direction. "We shouldn't stop her," he said with a shrug. "She's not a prisoner."

"I'd feel better if Michael was with them though," Bonnie said.

"Chances are Oliver's fleeing for the Mexican border, which is probably why he was in San Diego the other night," Michael said confidently.

Nadine sat in the passenger seat of her grandmother's 1988 Buick Century, her hat on her lap. They had made it a quick in and out deal with the supermarket, having only gone for the eggs. Nadine watched the people downtown as her grandmother talked about how lucky they were to have met Michael, Kitt, Bonnie, and Devon.

"Yeah," Nadine agreed.

"You should give Kitt a chance," she said amusingly.

"What?" Nadine asked, her head quickly turning to give her grandmother a confused and shocked look.

"Ask him to go to a movie or something," Grandma Nelly suggested. "He's handsome, affectionate, and courteous—"

"Grandma! Please," Nadine laughed. "I like Kitt…but not really like that."

They drove around the corner, a big smile on Grandma Nelly's face. "Liar."

Upon turning the corner, Grandma Nelly noticed the outdoor stands set up in front of the stores. "Oh look, Nadine, there's one selling flowers. We should bring Kitt home some."

"Grandma, I don't think he'd care if we brought him flowers," Nadine said dryly. "He's just happy being home and you already made him a cake, a second one on the way."

Grandma Nelly pulled over next to the curb behind a red car in front of the store. "Those carnations look pretty," she pointed out. "Take some money out of my purse."

Nadine sighed and picked up her own purse and pulled out a ten dollar bill. She gave her grandmother a quick look of ridicule and got out of the car. She went up to the middle-aged man selling the flowers and asked for a small bunch of carnations.

Grandma Nelly watched her pay as a young man walked up next to her and seemed to ask her something. At first she thought he was asking for directions perhaps, but he suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the car in front of where she was parked. "Nadine?" she said quickly, stepping out of her own car and feeling panic stricken when her granddaughter yelled.

"Help her!" the old lady shouted, but by the time the man selling the flowers got out of his stand, Nadine's kidnapper was closing the door to his car and driving off.

Michael and Kitt were watching a football game when Devon came rushing into the room. "Michael! Oliver's taken Nadine."

Michael got to his feet and started for the door. "Fill me in on the way," he told Devon as he went for the door.

Kitt came hurrying up behind him. "Where do you think you're going?" Michael asked quickly as Kitt grabbed his jacket out of the closet.

"With you, of course," he said. "And don't start on me, Michael."

"Kitt! You can't go through this right now!" Michael yelled after him as Kitt descended the front stairs of the house.

"Kitt, I forbid it," Devon demanded.

"Sorry Devon, but I'm not waiting around to get the news," Kitt said as he continued for the Knight Two Thousand. Michael still followed and got in the driver's seat after Kitt got in the passenger side, but he wasn't happy.

"You just had your brain pulled apart and you want to go on this chase? What if something happens?" Michael argued as he raced the car out of the driveway and onto the road.

"Exactly," Kitt said. "Then what will you do? This car can't ask you if you're okay, unlike me."

Michael shook his head. "You definitely picked up my stubbornness, didn't you?"

"Naturally," Kitt said. "But keep driving."

Devon had called them on the car phone, his face appearing on the screen on the extended section of the dashboard in front of where Kitt sat. "Grandma Nelly said it was a red car, a California license plate starting with JKH."

"JKH," Michael repeated. "Thanks Devon! We'll get back to you!"

"For God's sake, Michael, do be careful," Devon said. "Oliver's armed and there's no telling what he'll pull."

When the screen faded out and Devon's call had ended, Kitt looked at Michael. "I'm not sure I liked his last statement."

"Kitt, find me the police frequency," Michael ordered as he spun around a corner. "I wanna know where there's a hot pursuit."

Kitt pressed several buttons and adjusted a knob on the dash. There was momentary static, but Kitt found the right tuning. The deep voice of a man filled the car and they listened carefully. "Car 43, do you read?"

"Loud and clear."

"We just got report of a red Monte Carlo racing through an intersection on a red light, causing a three car accident. He should be heading your way down Orlando Boulevard."

"Copy that."

"You hear that, Michael?" Kitt asked quickly.

"I heard it," Michael said as he did a 360 in the middle of the street to take a path that would hopefully cut Robert Oliver off.

"Attention all units," the same voice on the police radio said. "We have a cruiser down on Sandy Path Drive, having been shot by the driver of a red Monte Carlo. This person is armed and very dangerous. Approach with caution."

"Damn it," Michael swore as he pushed the peddle of the car all the way down.

Kitt fiddled with the controls of the car's surveillance mode until he was able to find a reading on a fast moving car in the area. "There," Kitt pointed to the screen. "That has to be him heading towards North End Road."

"I hear ya," Michael said quickly. They were just about to turn onto North End when Kitt noticed the symbol for the car on the screen came to an abrupt stop. "What happened?" Michael asked, glancing down at the screen.

"They've stopped," Kitt said. "I suggest you approach with caution."

"Yes, chief," Michael replied with heavy sarcasm. They stopped on the side of the road before the turn that would be North End Road. Michael got out and snuck to the edge of the road and peered around the corner.

"Flat tire," Michael said when he returned. "He's pulling Nadine out of the car right now; probably to make a run for another car."

"Michael, I think I have an idea…"

Kitt had left Michael to running through the yards on the street as he had climbed into the driver's seat and floored the gas, fish-tailing around the corner.

Nadine had been putting up a fight with her kidnapper when the Knight Two Thousand made a sudden appearance, nabbing both their attentions.

Kitt came to a skidding halt and he took out the gun in the glove compartment. Quickly opening the door, he stepped out and held the gun up, pointing it towards Oliver.

"Give it up, Robert," Kitt called over, being about fifty feet away now. Nadine looked scared out of her mind when Robert held a gun up to her head.

"Drop the gun or I'll blow her away," he yelled out. "PUT IT DOWN!"

Kitt held back the gun. "I suggest you give up. The police are on their way as we speak. You're finished no matter what."

"Like hell," he said. He started pulling Nadine onto the sidewalk, gun still pointed to her head as they walked backwards so he could keep an eye on Kitt.

Kitt's eyes averted to the figure prowling from behind a massive bush-fence that outlined the perimeter of the yard Robert Oliver was heading towards. Michael slowly came up from behind, bending low in case Oliver happened to look over his shoulder. But the criminal's attention was on Kitt, who still held up his hands.

"SHIT!" Oliver yelled out when Michael jumped on his back, causing him to lose his hold on Nadine's arm.

Nadine ran over to Kitt as quickly as she could, Kitt moving away from the opened door of the car to catch her as she ran into him. "Kitt!" She cried into his chest as she held him tightly. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

The grunts of two men fighting could be heard through her sobs and she turned around to see Michael Knight forcing the gun out of Oliver's hand. He kicked his opponent's knee then proceeded to bring up a fist into his stomach. The finishing touch was two fists, fingers folded together, ramming down on the base of his neck, causing Robert Oliver to fall to the sidewalk unconscious.

Michael looked down at Oliver as he tried to catch his breath. Then his focus was raised up to see Kitt holding a very relieved Nadine. In the background came the sirens of the police cars, and Nadine could finally say it was over and she was free.


	11. Part XI

**_Part XI_**

Kitt Knight reclined back on the rocking patio chair, putting his feet up on the bar that went diagonally between the legs of the table. Taking a quick sip of his tea and then opening up a book he found in the house's small library, Kitt relaxed to the simple sound of the birds that were perched somewhere in one of the bushes that surrounded the patio area. The day was perfect—cloudless sky, a warm January day, and not a disturbance of sound could be heard for miles. It was quiet. It was peaceful. And Kitt felt that after the past week, he and his friends deserved it.

The wind blew gently, sneaking its way under the roofed section of the patio that extended from the back of the mansion. Kitt looked up from the fourth page of the novel; he reached for his mug and took another sip.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Kitt looked over his shoulder, a little startled from the suddenness of a visitor, but couldn't help but smile nonetheless. "Yes, actually."

Nadine smiled; instead of sitting on one of the chairs already at the table Kitt was seated at, she pulled the chair from the next table over and brought it next to him. Kitt watched her and closed his book, not to mention being a gentlemen and taking his feet off the bar of the table.

"You don't have to sit up straight for me," she joked as she looked straight ahead at the path that led to the heated pool.

"How are you holding up?" Kitt asked, looking at her still broken arm.

"Its getting there, I suppose," she said looking down at her purple-cast. "You?"

Kitt nodded slowly. "My head's a little sensitive, so that's why my hair is out of shape."

Nadine shook her head and looked at the mess of brown hair on his head. "It doesn't look bad," she told him.

There was a very long moment of silence. Kitt eyed the mug of tea on the table, but felt it rude if he sat there and drank when Nadine had nothing. His index finger lightly taped the top corner of the book in his lap, his mind running through a few possibilities of conversation starters. Luckily on his part, though, Nadine fixed that thought for him.

"You know, I never really got a chance to thank you personally for what you did last week," she blurted out.

Kitt looked at her a little confused. "Not that I kept count, but you thanked me nine times since Tuesday, not to mention the four times that day after the police arrived."

Nadine shook her head and looked at her feet. She looked a little anxious, but couldn't get the words to form right in her mouth. "Actually, it's not just about that. I mean, I wanted to thank you personally for everything since I've met you. I had started that night when you were in the middle of you procedure, but I felt so embarrassed; then I was happy you didn't remember anything from that night 'cause I thought it was just nonsense that I was saying. But then when you came back, I wanted nothing more than to tell you everything again."

Kitt looked at her with a little surprise. He didn't expect her to go on like this. "Nadine, there's no need for anything else. You've thanked me; but I was happy to do it for you."

"I'm serious, Kitt," she said giving him big brown eyes. "I really don't know how you could put up with me. I mean, I was terrible to you—"

"And I understand you're reasoning behind it," he interrupted.

Nadine shook her head. "No, Kitt, I was completely out of line. Especially when I was saying you stole Scott's life and stuff. I had no right to say that. I didn't even know your story. And you know what? Until we were being chased by Robert did I even consider that you should be given a chance. But honestly, I never liked you more than the fact that you and I were both in the same car accident until you went into the hospital for your memory. Kitt, for some reason, just _hearing_ your voice soothed me, and I forgot all of my problems. And since then I've been really thinking about you."

"Thinking about me?" Kitt repeated.

"Yeah," she said, her cheeks turning a bright shade of pink. "You have no idea how happy I was to see you jump out of that car. And not because of the rescue….I was actually taken when I saw you trying to save me at first, instead of Michael."

Now it was Kitt's turn to blush madly. He could feel his ears getting a tad bit hot. "I don't know what to say."

Nadine shrugged. "You don't have to say anything…." She paused and looked directly at him. "Kitt…can I thank you personally now?"

Kitt turned his head to find that she was moving in her seat so she could lean over. He couldn't find his voice; his body was paralyzed for the moment. Nadine leaned closer, her eyes staring straight into his, which closed automatically when he could feel her breath on his lips. He felt her mouth brush up against his own ever so slightly; then she leaned in a little bit more to make the kiss complete.

Nadine backed away slowly, both their eyes opening to stare at the other. Kitt's heart was beating a mile a minute and he knew he must be as red as a tomato. Yet there was something in the back of his mind that bothered him. He looked away from her, his eyes resting on the faded picture of a mountain on his mug.

"Please say something," she practically whispered in a tense voice.

"Nadine," he started softly. "You know I admire you; you're brave, bold, smart, and very pretty. But I have this nagging feeling that you're still seeing me as Scott and not as myself. I'm can't pretend to be him for you."

"I know that," Nadine said, but not even in the slightest bit of defense. She had a feeling he'd say something like that. "Kitt, I'm being one-hundred percent honest when I say that I've fallen for that personality of yours." Kitt smiled. "You know, I heard what you and your girlfriend were arguing about. I was a terrible person and listened to the whole thing. And I have one thing to say to her—she couldn't have been more wrong."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely," Nadine replied with a large white smile. "I never believed you about the whole computer thing at first—I never thought it was possible. But you're more human than some humans are."

"I've heard that somewhere before," Kitt said with a small laugh.

"So," Nadine said after a moment passed. "Can we extend our acquaintance to a better friendship?"

"I couldn't have put it better myself."

Michael Knight carried the remaining mini-duffle bag Nadine had packed, wondering how he got stuck carrying all of her luggage while Kitt escorted her to the terminal. Bonnie would have joined them, had she not forgotten about her dentist appointment the previous day and had to reschedule it for the following morning.

Nadine watched the people entering the terminal for the plane bound for Phoenix, Arizona; once she arrived there, it was a two hour wait for her next flight that would bring her to Frankfort, Kentucky.

Nadine turned on her heels and looked at her two friends. "I know I've said this millions of times, and I'm sure you're sick of hearing it, but I can't thank you guys enough for everything you've done for me."

"You're more than welcome," Michael said with that friendly smile of his. "You come back soon, ya hear?"

"As soon as I sell my apartment and settle everything back home," she said with a nod. "Grandma is already for me to move back into her house with her."

"They said her house will be set by the end of February," Michael told her. "You better be back by then." He held out his arms for a hug and she walked right into them, putting her arms around his waist. "Bye Nadine."

"Bye, Michael." She turned to Kitt and picked up his hands. "I'll call you when I get there."

"I'll be waiting," he said with a small smirk. "As the French would say, bon voyage."

Nadine leaned her head up and gave him a quick kiss and then smiled as she stepped away, realizing that Michael wasn't aware of their stronger friendship. She gave him a challenging expression as she took her duffle bag from him, then turned to head down the terminal.

Kitt and Michael waited until her plane was off the ground and out of site in the distance. They started back for the car, the Knight Two Thousand since Michael was still without a set of wheels of his own. On the way Michael looked over to Kitt with a slightly confused face. "You and Nadine?"

"Hmm?" Kitt asked, pretending he didn't hear what he said.

"She kissed you good-bye? After hating you a few weeks ago, she's found the guts to kiss you like that?"

Kitt smiled. "Michael, I don't know what the fuss is all about. You always kissed the girl good-bye at the end of our missions."

"Yeah, but you're not one that believes in the same ritual," Michael said dryly.

"I detect a hint of jealousy in your voice, Michael," Kitt said with amusement as they arrived at the black t-top.

"Me? Jealous of you? C'mon!"

They got in the car and Michael revved up the engine. He pulled out of the parking spot, headed out of the lot and waited for the light to turn green at the exit. "I'm not jealous…just surprised."

"We've come to an understanding of each other," Kitt said simply, staring out the window.

"An understanding?" Michael asked with a laugh. "Kitt, just admit you like her."

"Michael, you're beginning to sound like my mother," Kitt told him with a small smile, although he still stared out the window to look upon a plane being backed out of its terminal.

"Kitt," Michael said with a rolling of the eyes, "you don't have a mother."

"Which is exactly my point," Kitt said only getting a reaction of laughter from his friend as the light turned green and they headed back to the Knight Foundation.

The End


End file.
